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FIC: It's A Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand Part Nine

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:31:47 GMT

And here's the final part of the story...we finally get to the smut! Hope y'all enjoy, LOL.

Part Nine

It still took about another ten minutes to get his harried sister and his annoying brother-in-law out the door, but once they were gone, Luke finally breathed a sigh of relief. Until he turned around and remembered that he had to talk to Mara about the almost-kiss now. Not that he was regretting the kiss, not in the slightest, but he was very worried that she might be, after facing the inquisition from his family.

“I’m impressed, Skywalker. I thought your sister had you firmly under her thumb,” Mara teased.

“Leia is a very strong-willed woman, and sometimes, yes, it is easier to just let her have her way about things. But when it’s important, I can make up my own mind,” Luke said quietly.

“So you think this is important, then?” Mara asked, her voice carefully neutral.

“Probably one of the most important conversations I’ll ever have.”

Mara nodded slowly. “Okay. Would you like to sit down?” she asked, gesturing towards the sofa.

Luke flushed a little, remembering the intimate position they’d been in when his sister had interrupted them. He coughed nervously. “Sure, that would be fine.”

As the two of them sat stiffly on the sofa, Luke silently cursed the sudden awkwardness that had taken over the room. Where was the honest emotion they’d been feeling before?

“Mara-” he tried to start as he turned to face her. But it ended in a startled squeak when she suddenly leaned over, grabbed his face, and kissed him hard. It was over quickly, and she sat back, grinning at him, although Luke noted that she looked a little flushed herself.

Meanwhile, he could barely think straight all of a sudden. His pulse was pounding, his palms were sweaty, and his breath was coming in pants that he couldn’t seem to get under control.

“Thought we could just get that out of the way, Skywalker,” Mara said.

“I’m not sure that I want to just ‘get it out of the way’, Mara. I think we might need to explore that a little further,” Luke said, amazed that he was able to get that whole sentence out, the way his head was spinning.

They stared silently at one another for a long moment, the tension in the room mounting steadily, until it nearly became a tangible presence. In an instant, they crashed together – Luke wasn’t sure if he moved forward or if she did, or maybe they met in the middle – and they were kissing deeply.

Luke had intended to just talk with her, truly he had, but it was as though everything had reached a boiling point. Their emotions, their desires, the intense longing; all of it just bubbled up and exploded into frenzied passion. Hands scrabbled to remove clothing, discarding it carelessly around the room, as they both eagerly caressed naked flesh.

Mara fell to her back on the sofa with a growl, pulling Luke with her. He went willingly, thrilling at all the wonderful places their naked bodies were connecting. He flexed his hips, just a little, enough to rub his hardness against the hidden nub between her thighs. Mara gasped and arched her back, conveniently putting her beautiful breasts easily within reach of his mouth.

He leaned down and kissed one taut nipple, before drawing it into his mouth and sucking gently. Mara cried out and brought her hands to the back of his head, pressing him closer in a wordless demand for more. Intoxicated with her taste and scent, Luke wanted more as well. He traced a trail down her quivering stomach with his lips, delighting in the tiny moans and gasps he was eliciting with his touch.

When he reached the tangle of red curls between her legs, Luke breathed in, inhaling the essence of her. He glanced up at Mara’s face, enthralled at how she was only barely clinging to her control as she anticipated what he wanted to do. Luke wanted to see her lose that control and he wanted to be the one to make it happen. With a mischievous smirk, he softly kissed her there, before flicking his tongue sharply against that little nub of pleasure. He was rewarded with a howl from Mara like he’d never heard from her before.

Her hips thrust up against his mouth, as her hands clutched at his hair. Luke went to work in earnest then, determined to see her melting with ecstasy before he was done. Fingers, lips, tongue…Luke used every trick he’d ever learned from Han and his pilot buddies and his own experiences to make her scream.

It was a good thing the apartments they lived in were completely soundproof as Mara was absolutely hollering at the top of her lungs. She cried out his name, encouragement to keep going, threats if he should stop, and a few calls to various deities he hadn’t even known she believed in.

Luke was fascinated to note that, at the moment of her climax, Mara breathed in a sharp breath and froze completely still, save for the slight shivering echoing across her body. He hummed in satisfaction as he felt the pulses thrumming through her, and tasted the warm juices that trickled into his mouth.

Mara collapsed into a boneless heap, tiny panting gasps escaping her as she floated down from her orgasm. Luke was so hard he feared he would burst before he moved a muscle. Reaching down one hand to tightly squeeze the base of his erection to stave off his own climax, he moved up Mara’s limp body, kissing her mouth gently. She sighed in delight as she returned the caress.

“Mara, gotta be in you…please, let me…” he whispered, needing her so badly.

“Yes, yes, Luke…need you there…” she whispered in return.

He shifted over her, raising up a little so that he could guide himself inside. She was so slick and hot and wet that he slid in with no resistance at all. Luke couldn’t help but groan as his eyelids fluttered closed. He knew he wasn’t going to last very long, so he tried to hold still for as long as he could, so he could completely savor this moment. Then Mara clenched around him and he gasped, his eyes flying back open. She was smiling up at him blissfully, and she wrapped her arms around him and whispered into his ear.

“Come for me, Luke.”

Her husky words seemed to go straight to his cock and Luke began to move, pulling out halfway before surging forward to fill her again. Barely a dozen strokes and Luke could feel it, could sense it coming on swiftly. “Oh, kriff…Mara!”

Her nails raked down the length of his back, and as Luke arched in surprised bliss, Mara took the opportunity to nip at his collarbone, scraping her teeth across it in a move that was certain to leave a mark. That was all it took, and Luke groaned as his orgasm washed over him, pulsing waves that grew stronger briefly as he emptied himself into her.

When it finally tapered off, Luke resisted the urge to just collapse on Mara, instead lowering himself gently back on top of her. He nuzzled his nose into her neck, sighing in contentment at the soft buzzing of pleasure that still tingled over his body. Mara wrapped her arms around him, turning her head so that she could kiss his forehead.

Momentarily fighting against the delicious lassitude that was enveloping him, Luke raised his head so that he could look into his lover’s eyes.

“That was…amazing,” he said.

Mara grinned back at him. “I couldn’t agree more, Skywalker.”

A tiny frown creased his brow at her continued use of his surname. He was hoping that it was more habit than her trying to tell him something. “Don’t you think you could call me Luke after what just happened between us?”

“Well, that depends,” she said.

Luke thought his heart might have just stopped. Surely, she wasn’t going to say this was a mistake. Force, he could not go back to the lonely existence he’d been suffering through before…not after he’d known the utter delight to be found in her arms.

“I told you before that I’ve never been great at talking about feelings, but I do feel something for you. Something that I’ve never felt before. I’m not familiar enough with love to know if that’s what it is or not, but I think this might be what love feels like,” Mara said quietly. “Whether or not I call you Luke depends on if you feel the same,” she said, her voice dropping to an uncharacteristic hesitant whisper.

Luke’s heart started beating again. In fact, it was pounding so fast, he half-wondered if she could hear it. “Mara, I’ve been in love with you for years. If you’ll have me, I swear I’ll never let you go,” he declared.

“That’s good to hear,” Mara said and she reached her arms up to loop them around his neck, pulling him down so that she could kiss him. It took several minutes before they paused long enough for her to say, “Because I don’t ever intend to let you go.”

He grinned ecstatically as he leaned down to kiss her again. She stopped him with one finger to his lips.

“Just one thing.”

He looked at her quizzically, wondering what in the stars she could still be worried about.

“No more shrooms for you…ever!”

Luke stared at her in shock for a second before the both of them started laughing helplessly. Secretly, Luke thought he might start a garden with nothing but shrooms.

After all, they’d gotten him the woman of his dreams.

~FIN~

FIC: It's A Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand Part Eight

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:28:30 GMT

And here's the next part...

FOR TRACI!!

Part Eight

The moment Luke opened his eyes, he had to immediately close them again to try and push away the fierce headache that was pounding through his skull. The second time he opened his eyes, he stared in wide-eyed wonder at Mara Jade lying asleep on his chest. For a brief second, he panicked, not recalling a single detail as to how he’d ended up here, in her apartment, he realized after taking a quick look around.

And then, to his horror, memories of the last week began trickling back into his brain, and he closed his eyes once again as he let out a groan.

“Oh, I am so dead,” he whispered.

“Nah, if I didn’t kill you when Palpy ordered me to, I’m hardly gonna do it now, Jedi,” Mara said sleepily, and looked up at him with a smirk.

Luke’s eyes jerked open once more and he gasped at the realization that she was awake, and there went his opportunity to somehow get the hell out of here without her knowing.

“Um…good morning?” he said hesitantly.

“Hmm, yeah, pretty good morning so far. At least you’re not trying to sing anymore.”

“What?” he asked in confusion and then that memory came back, too. “Oh, please kill me now.”

“Hey, why would I want to get rid of you now when I’ve finally got some really good blackmail material on the oh-so-perfect Jedi Master?”

“You’re…ah…being awfully understanding about all of this…” he said, and then cautiously continued. “And…er…how exactly did…this…” Luke gestured with one hand to the two of them lying so intimately on her sofa. “…happen?”

Mara gave a throaty little laugh, and Luke tried to hide his whimper, while he also tried to hide the effect the sound had on his traitorous body. Maybe if he shifted carefully, she wouldn’t notice.

“Well, let’s just say that you wanted to explore a side of our relationship that we’ve never explored before, Skywalker.” She gave a sultry smile and Luke’s breathing and heartbeat shot through the stratosphere.

“I…we…I mean…did we?” he asked and glanced down quickly. They both still seemed to be fully dressed. He was half-disappointed, half-relieved, because if that had happened, he definitely wanted to remember it.

Then Mara laughed at him for real, and Luke gave her a startled glance before relaxing. She was teasing him, then. All right, at least that was a little closer to their normal relationship.

“Don’t worry, Skywalker, nothing happened. You went comatose before I could take full advantage of you.”

“Ad-advantage?” he mumbled, and then squeezed his eyes shut as more memories flooded into his brain, causing his head to pound once more. “Oh, stars! My sister and Han saw me naked!!” he shrieked in horror.

“Hmm, lucky them,” Mara murmured, so quietly that he almost didn’t catch it.

“Wait, what? What do you mean by that, ‘lucky them’?” he asked as he opened his eyes to peer questioningly at her. To his surprise, she ducked her head in what almost seemed like a shy move. ‘Shy’ and ‘Mara’ were not two words that he often connected in his mind.

“Mara?” he asked softly.

She raised her head and looked at him. He nearly went breathless at the determined intensity of her gaze. “When you weren’t yourself, there was a moment. A moment when we…well, we connected. Very intimately. And it was only cut short because you passed out on me.”

Luke winced. “I’m sorry,” he said, not sure if he was apologizing for passing out or for not passing out sooner.

“It’s not as though you had much choice in the situation. Which is kind of why I’m glad that it didn’t go any further…”

Luke dropped his gaze quickly, not wanting her to see the pain in his eyes at the starkness of her words. His desire for Mara Jade was something he’d kept carefully hidden, even from himself most of the time. It hurt that she was saying she didn’t want him.

“…because I definitely want to explore it while you’re fully yourself, Jedi,” she continued softly.

Luke looked back up at her, certain his surprise showing on his face. “I’m not sure I understand,” he whispered, unable to fully believe what she seemed to be trying to tell him. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, like they’d been fruitlessly raised too many times before in his life.

“Skywalker…” she began, then paused for a second, when she smiled at him, the warmest smile he’d ever seen from Mara Jade in all the years he’d known her. “Luke. There’s always been something between us. It was something that I fought tooth and nail for many years, but I’m tired of fighting. Both my feelings and you. Do you feel it, too? Or am I completely embarrassing myself here?” she said, a sliver of doubt showing through the confidence she’d just been displaying.

“I do feel it, Mara, I think I always have. I just never thought…I mean, I never dreamed that you might feel the same way,” he said in wonder.

“I denied it for a long time, Luke, but I do. I truly do.”

He found himself in awe at her courage. He’d often been impressed by many aspects of her personality over the years: her strength, both mental and physical; her determination; her integrity; the ferocity with which she attacked everything in her life. Luke had always thought that she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met, and it wasn’t just her physical form that attracted him.

Here, in this moment, he thought she might have been the bravest person he’d ever known. It was sometimes so easy to put your physical self out there in a confrontation or battle, or at least Luke had always found it to be so. But to put your heart in front of someone else? Especially when you weren’t one hundred per cent certain that they returned your feelings? Luke thought that Mara was far more courageous than he could ever be.

He realized that he’d been quiet a bit too long when she shifted uncomfortably on top of him, her face going a bit tense. Luke smiled at her and raised his hands to gently cup her face. Mara stilled and just stared at him, her eyes going wide.

“You are so amazing,” he whispered. He lifted his head off the sofa just a little bit, hesitantly making the first move. To his immense relief, she responded, tilting her face down towards his, her eyes sliding closed as their lips came so close to touching. It was absolutely the most perfect moment Luke had ever experienced in his life thus far.

Which, of course, meant that it was bound to be ruined.

“Luke, are you here?” his sister’s voice called out worriedly, as he heard the front door of Mara’s apartment open. This was followed quickly by a startled shriek, as not only Leia, but his brother-in-law came around the corner as well. That bastard started laughing his ass off, naturally. Luke and Mara scrambled to get off the sofa as quickly as they could, although Luke was hoping that Mara was just as disappointed as he was at the intrusion.

It took several minutes for the chaos that followed to be contained. The four of them ended up in an awkward circle in the middle of Mara’s living room. Luke was embarrassed to have such an intimate moment be interrupted by his sister; Leia was chastising him for causing her to worry about him; Mara was incensed that the Solos had somehow gotten into her apartment without her permission or her passcode; and Han just couldn’t stop laughing.

“Solo, if you don’t quit that cackling, I’ll explain to your wife exactly how Luke came to be in my apartment,” Mara threatened, which got the attention of both Skywalkers immediately.

“What would Han have to do with that?” Leia asked, while giving her husband a suspicious glare.

“We don’t need to mention anything about a certain bar, Mara…and I mean ever when I say that,” Luke said, a little desperately.

“What? What bar? What do you mean by that?” Leia asked, turning her glare to her twin.

“It wouldn’t exactly be good blackmail material if I gave it up that easily, now would it?” Mara said, a wicked gleam in her eye.

Luke just chuckled a little weakly, not sure if she was joking or not.

“Luke, you’ve just been through a very rough week. We don’t know what other effects the shrooms might have had on your system. I think you need to be checked out by a doctor right now,” Leia said insistently.

“I’m feeling fine now, just a little tired,” Luke replied.

“Still, I think it would be best if we made sure of that-”

“Leia,” Luke interrupted her. “I’m fine. I’m just a little tired and extremely embarrassed at some of the memories about the last week that keep coming back to me. I just need to rest, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I just wish I’d thought of using a holocam for the week, Kid. You were hilarious!” Han snickered.

“Thanks, Han. I knew I could count on you to find humor in my perilous situation,” Luke said dryly.

“Bah! It was never perilous, Kid! Leia and I had everything well in hand the whole time.”

“Until you lost him,” Mara said with a sarcastic tilt of her head.

“Yes, how did that happen, Han?” Leia said, as she turned to glare at her husband. “I seem to recall you telling me that everything was under control and I woke up from my nap, Luke was gone!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault! Luke’s a freaking Jedi Master, okay? He got away from me, but that’s why I sent Jade after him. I figured with the Force mumbo-jumbo causing this mess, she’d be able to find him the quickest,” he said.

He looked quite pleased with himself at this rationalization, until he realized that now all three Force-sensitive people in the room were giving him nasty looks. Obviously, a diversion was called for immediately.

“Anyway, I think the question should be, what were Jade and the kid doing when we walked in the room?” he asked slyly.

“That is an interesting question,” Leia said coolly, turning her attention back to her brother.

“And one that is none of your business,” Luke answered back just as calmly.

Leia gasped, hurt showing just a little on her face. Luke sighed and rubbed a hand wearily on the back of his neck.

“Look…Leia…you know I love you very much, but honestly, what happens between Mara and myself is between Mara and myself,” he said gently, while sneaking a quick glance at the redhead in question to see what she thought of the direction of the conversation. To his relief, she wasn’t running for the door.

But then, this is her apartment, Luke thought to himself. Well, at least she wasn’t physically throwing all of them out. He hoped that was a positive sign.

“I’m just worried about you, Luke,” Leia said faintly, a glimmer of hurt still shining in her eyes.

“I know you are, but I am a big boy now. I can take care of myself.” He grimaced at the pointed glance she gave him, reminding him without words of the fiasco the last week had been. “Well, most of the time I can. And I’m fine now, I promise.”

“I still think you need to see a doctor, just to be safe.”

“All he’d tell me is to get some rest, Leia. I can manage that on my own.”

“Well, if you’re sure…” Leia said. When Luke gave her a firm nod, she then added, “Han and I can walk you back up to your apartment.”

Luke closed his eyes and quickly counted to ten in his head. Force, but his sister was stubborn! “Mara and I have some things to discuss-”

“Oh, is that what they’re calling it these days?” Han said sarcastically.

“-so I’m not leaving at the moment,” Luke continued, giving Han a quick glare and sneaking a hopeful look in Jade’s direction. To his immense relief, she gave a barely noticeable nod.

To be concluded!

FIC: It's A Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand Part Seven

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:45:09 GMT

Oops, just realized that I didn't finish posting this here!

Part Seven

Once inside her apartment, Luke spent several minutes walking around and making silly commentary on the few knick-knacks she had brought back from various places in the galaxy. Mara wasn’t a huge believer in filling up her personal space with fripperies, but there were some things that had spoken enough to her when she saw them, that she decided to bring them home.

She thought perhaps Luke had forgotten about the ruse she’d used to get him here, and wasn’t sure why she felt a little twinge of disappointment in her belly. She was so lost in pondering that for a moment, that Luke clearing his throat in front of her took Mara a bit by surprise. And wasn’t that an embarrassing situation for a highly trained former Imperial agent.

“I think we should kiss now,” he announced, and leaned towards her, closing his eyes and puckering his lips in the most exaggerated fashion she’d ever seen.

Mara couldn’t help it. She snickered. Of course, then she felt guilty, because he reared back and had such a crestfallen expression on his face.

“Why are you laughing?”

“That wasn’t a laugh. It was…it was…I was holding back a sneeze. I didn’t want to sneeze on you,” she stammered.

“You’re lying. You tricked me into coming here, which means…you are the dancer spy who’s been trying to kill me!” Luke shrieked at her, while he pointed an accusing finger in her face.

Mara glared at him in annoyance and pushed his hand away. “I did not trick you into coming here, Skywalker,” she said. Although, well, technically she had, but it was for a very good cause.

“Yes, you did! And now I’m going to have to use my super special Jedi skills to. Take. You. Out,” he said, in what she was sure he thought was a menacing manner.

She didn’t have the heart to tell him it made him sound like the bad actor on that space academy show that was so popular for some obscure reason. Then, with what sounded like some sort of warrior call, he threw himself at her, clearly intending to make good on his threat.

Two seconds later, he was face down on the carpet and Mara had her knee in his back and one arm twisted up behind him. He was whining like a little baby, pleading with her to let him go and promising that he’d be good.

I am really getting soft in my old age, Mara thought as she stepped up away from him and told him to sit down on the couch and behave. In the past, she would have at least made sure someone had a broken arm if they’d dared attack her like that. No matter if they were a little whacked out of their minds or not.

Luke sat on the couch beside her, sniffling sulkily and rubbing his sore arm. He sent several baleful looks in her direction before she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“What is it?” she asked, with an impatient sigh.

“Well, it’s just that…” he hesitated.

“What, Skywalker?” she demanded.

“I didn’t get my kiss. You promised sex, and if I’m not going to get that, I think I should at least get a kiss,” he said grumpily.

“Fine!” Mara shouted, thinking that she should really get more rewards out of Solo after this was over, just for all the trouble she was having to deal with. That was what she told herself, stubbornly ignoring that little voice that said this might be the only chance she’d ever have to know what a kiss from Skywalker was like.

It was probably going to be horrible anyway, as goofy as he was at the moment. A huge grin crossed his face and he started to lean forward while doing that disgusting lip thing again. Mara wasn’t having any of that.

“Hold up, Jedi,” she said, putting one hand on his chest to hold him in place. He started to protest, so she quickly added, “You just sit back and I’ll take it from here, all right?”

“Well, okay. If you’re sure. But I could do a really good job at this, I know I could,” he said earnestly.

“I’m sure,” Mara said wryly.

She slid over closer to him and leaned in slowly. Luke was being as still as a statue, following her instruction to give over control dutifully. Mara brushed her lips ever so softly over his, a kiss that was barely a kiss. She paused for a second, feeling her own breathing speed up as she heard Luke’s hitch a little in his throat.

“Is…is that all?” he whispered.

“No. Not yet. Patience, Jedi,” she whispered back. She touched her mouth to his again, lingering this time, adding a bit more pressure, and then she let her tongue slip out to glide over his bottom lip. Luke gave a tiny gasp, his eyes falling closed, the tempo of his breath increasing.

Mara felt like she was floating; Luke’s presence was that intoxicating. She realized somewhat ruefully that she’d been lying to herself for quite some time. She was in love with the blasted Jedi, and probably had been from almost the moment she’d met him. And right now, she really wasn’t close enough to him.

Sitting side-by-side on the couch was awkward, causing her to have to twist sideways to meet his lips. With a little huff of exasperation, she sat up and swung one leg around until she was straddling him. Luke squeaked in surprise at the sudden move, but didn’t protest. Instead, he hesitantly brought his hands up to press lightly against her back.

Being so close to him, being able to look him right in the eyes, Mara felt a little lightheaded. It really was too bad that he was a little light in the head at the moment as well. A sneaky little voice inside of her insisted on wondering what this would be like if Luke was fully in command of his mental faculties. She shook her head a little, angry at herself for wondering impossible things. This was going to be her only chance to kiss Skywalker, so she’d better take it.

“Why are you shaking your head? Are you changing your mind? Cause that’s totally not fair, to change your mind on something when you’ve already promised it. I really, really hate it when people do that to me, it makes me very mad and I am still a Jedi, you know. I could-”

Mara cut him off quickly by leaning in and really kissing him this time, letting herself go all out as though this was one of those dreams she kept having, although she’d always denied that they meant anything. He was slightly hesitant, almost a bit clumsy at first, but it didn’t take long until he was matching her move for move. Mara heard a desperate-sounding moan echo through her living room, and was vaguely aware that the noise had come from her. She was far too turned on to care at this point.

In fact, she had to back off for a moment, try to regain her senses, or else she would end up following through on her original promise of full-out sex. Mara pulled her lips away from his and buried her face in Luke’s neck, not wanting to face him just yet as she tried to regain her composure somewhat. The two of them were breathing heavily, and Mara could not deny the tiny shivers that skated over her skin each time she felt his breath exhale against her ear.

Her traitorous brain began to send thoughts that perhaps having sex with Skywalker wasn’t such a horrendous idea. After all, she might not get another chance at this, right? Mara Jade had always been a believer in taking opportunities as they came. Sometimes you didn’t know if they’d ever come again, so you had to jump on them – so to speak – when they appeared. She felt Luke rest his head on her shoulder and wondered if he was as affected as she was by their encounter.

“Maybe we should take this into the bedroom, Skywalker?” Mara whispered breathily. There was no answer and she thought for a moment that he hadn’t heard her. Although how that was possible when her lips were right next to his ear…

“Skywalker?” she said, and pulled her head back to look at him. As she did so, his head lolled forward and something sounding suspiciously like a snore emanated from his mouth. Holy hells, I kissed him into unconsciousness! was Mara’s first ridiculous thought and then she recalled the conversation with Solo about what would happen when the shrooms finally began to wear off. Well, she supposed this was a good thing, as it meant that he’d be back to normal when he woke up. She tried to ignore that little spark of disappointment that she might have missed a chance that would never come again.

“Blast, Skywalker, you couldn’t have held off on the coma for another thirty minutes or so?” she grumbled to herself, before shifting to carefully lower him to lie on her sofa. The action left her lying somewhat awkwardly on his chest.

Mara stared down into his sleeping face and wondered if she could find the courage to change things between them. She knew that he had feelings for her, too. What exactly those feelings entailed, she wasn’t sure. But maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to finally find out. With that in mind, Mara decided to settle herself on top of him and wait to see what happened when he woke up.

TBC

FIC: It's A Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand Part Six

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:00:14 GMT

Here's the next part of this story...

Part Six

Mara Jade let herself into her apartment with a bone weary sigh. Karrde was a fantastic boss to work for, but he did expect a lot out of his employees, and this last assignment had worked Mara into a near state of exhaustion. All she was looking forward to now was a hot bath and then her bed, in that order, and nothing else for at least twenty-four hours.

Which of course, with the way her luck was going lately, explained why her comm station was buzzing with seventeen urgent messages. Seriously, couldn’t Talon give her one day to rest up? She’d managed to secure a deal with the damn Moritti Council, a reclusive group that hadn’t welcomed outsiders into their ranks in nearly two decades. That wasn’t enough? She grimaced as she listened to the first message, fully prepared to tell Talon she was quitting if he reneged on her promised two-week vacation.

To her surprise, it wasn’t Talon Karrde, but Han Solo on her comm…all seventeen times. The first few messages were fairly straightforward, of the ‘Jade, I need to talk to you, please call me’ variety. However, as the messages went on, Solo became increasingly nervous and frantic, until by the last one, he was on his knees and begging her to answer her damn calls before he ended up facing utter doom.

Just as Mara was trying to decide whether she should try some of the drugs Solo was apparently indulging in, he called again. Taken off guard, Mara stupidly answered.

“Thank the stars you’ve finally decided to pick up, Jade! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to get in touch with you?!” he demanded.

“Frankly, yes, Solo. Since about 1500, if my timestamp is right. Now give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just hang up on your ass. You’ve got about five seconds to convince me,” she snarled.

“Right, right, I’m sorry, Jade. Didn’t mean to be so, um, harsh. Just don’t hang up, okay? Please don’t hang up?” Solo said, as he raised his hands in a pleading gesture.

Mara was intrigued enough not to cut him off instantly. Solo was acting very odd and very, well, un-Solo-like. “Explain,” she said sharply.

If she were a lesser woman, the story that came pouring out of Solo might have caused her mouth to drop open in shock. As it was, she couldn’t help the reflexive raising of one incredulous eyebrow.

“So, basically what you’re telling me is that you let one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy get high on drugs, then you lost him and he’s now wandering somewhere, completely defenseless, on the most populous planet in said galaxy? And you want my help to find him because you’re afraid that if your wife finds out you’ve lost him, she’ll cut your balls off?”

“That’s pretty much the gist of it, yeah,” Solo said with a sheepish grin. Then he looked at her with an obviously practiced entreating expression. Mara supposed that it must work wonders on his wife. “So will you help?”

“I don’t know, Solo. You’d owe me. And I do mean big time owe me.”

“I’ll do almost anything, Jade.”

She noted that he wasn’t so desperate for her help that he didn’t fail to qualify that ‘anything’. But she knew it didn’t matter anyway. As soon as she’d heard that it was Skywalker that needed help, Mara had known she was going to do it. There was something about that blasted Jedi Master that just kept pulling her back in to his sphere, no matter how hard she tried to resist. Of course, that didn’t mean she had to let Solo know that.

“I’m thinking an exclusive contract with Karrde Industries and the Coruscant Trade Council might be a good start,” Mara said slyly.

Solo’s jaw clenched and he glared, but he somehow managed to refrain from saying what he was probably thinking. And it was no doubt something not very nice.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said tightly.

“And perhaps a couple of tickets to the Smashball Galaxy Championship Tournament wouldn’t go amiss either.”

“What!? Are you insane!? Do you have any idea how much tickets to that thing go for?” Han screeched.

“Do you want my help or not?” Mara said with a vicious grin.

Solo closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, muttering a few things she couldn’t hear under his breath. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“I knew you’d see it my way. Now, when exactly was the last time you saw Skywalker?”

~*~*~

Mara eyed the seedy-looking club – and that was perhaps being a little bit nice in describing the place – warily. Ever since Wayland, there’d been an odd connection between her and Skywalker, but she’d never tried to use it to track him like this before, so maybe she’d gotten it wrong.

Her instinct, and the Force, was telling her that he was in that place, though, so Mara squared her shoulders and marched over to the doors. Naturally, her hand stayed on her blaster, just in case, as she cautiously opened the door.

She could have come in blasters blazing for all the attention that anyone inside was paying the entrance. It was very unusual, since Mara knew that one of the hazards of entering a small pub like this was having every patron inside size you up the minute you stepped in the door.

Instead, the attention of every person in the dingy club seemed to be drawn to one of the back corners. And oddly, every single person had the same look of horrified fascination on their faces. Then, the noise hit Mara’s ears. It was a little less intense than the caterwauling of a drowning feline, but not by much. Morbidly curious, Mara stepped forward around some of the people standing between her and the back of the club.

Her jaw almost hit the floor when she finally got clear of the small crowd to see what was holding everyone’s attention so rabidly. Luke Skywalker was up on a tiny stage…and he was singing.

Badly.

Really, really badly.

Mara had heard some mangled versions of popular songs on karaoke before, but well…Skywalker was just truly awful. The worst part probably was the song he’d picked to sing. It was a sultry, sexy number that had been made popular by some Zeltron singer a few years ago, and the lyrics were really more suited to someone like her – Mara couldn’t be bothered with remembering her name – than a Jedi Master who apparently had zero singing ability.

Those lyrics began to really sink into her consciousness now and Mara realized she had to stop this before everyone in the audience was permanently mentally scarred.

I love myself
I want you to love me
When I'm feelin' down
I want you above me
I search myself
I want you to find me
I forget myself
I want you to remind me
I don't want anybody else
When I think about you
I touch myself
I don't want anybody else
Oh no, oh no, oh no

When sung by the Zeltron, who had a body that would have made Darth Vader himself reconsider his allegiance to the Dark Side, the song was sexy…seductive…made men and women both want to throw themselves at her feet. When sung by Luke Skywalker? It was a bit on the creepy side. Almost vomit-inducing, actually.

Yeah, she definitely had to put a stop to this, cause no way was she going to chance wading around in vomit. Not in these boots, which had cost her a small fortune. And then she realized she had to do something very quickly, because surely he was not going to do in gesture what he was singing about in the song? Oh stars, yes he was!

Mara leapt up onto the stage and grabbed Luke by the arm, conveniently the one that had started to wander, ignoring the startled shrieks that had begun in the audience. Without giving him a chance to say anything, she yanked him off the stage and started to drag him towards the door. Apparently, she’d moved so quickly that she’d taken Luke by surprise, and they were outside on the sidewalk before Luke even managed a protest. Mara let the door close on the relieved cheers from inside the club as Luke began to yell angrily at her.

“Hey! You interrupted my set!”

“Thank the Force, someone had to,” she retorted.

He glared and then narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. “Do I know you?”

Mara blinked in surprise. Solo hadn’t told her that Skywalker was quite that far gone. Great, if he didn’t even recognize her, how in the hells was she going to convince him to come with her back to her apartment so that he could sleep the rest of those magic shrooms off?

Mentally gritting her teeth, she decided to go the same route that Solo told her he’d used…humor the bastard.

“Of course you do, Skywalker. I’m your contact. We have to go back to home base so we can discuss our next move against the Imperials.” And didn’t that just sound weird coming from her, but Mara chose not to think too hard on the irony there.

Luke continued to eye her warily and then took a mutinous stance, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down his nose at her. “I don’t believe you and I’m not going anywhere with you. You didn’t like my singing, so that proves that you’re not on my side.”

Mara barely held in her groan of frustration. There was no way she could tell Luke that rabid vornskrs wouldn’t have liked his singing, as it was just that horrible, because then he would really get stubborn. He was stubborn enough when he was in his right mind. What to do?

Well, hells…he was still a guy.

“So, then, do you just want to go back to my apartment and have sex?” she asked, not at all sure that this would work. Skywalker was a moral, pious Jedi, who probably believed that the body was too pure for such-

“Okay!” he said eagerly. “Is it very far?”

“Er…no, it’s just a couple of kilometers, actually,” Mara said quietly, a little bit shocked that her outrageous suggestion had met with agreement so quickly. She wondered if he was really as addle-brained as Solo had said he was, before she decided that Luke’s assent was probably thorough proof that he was temporarily loony.

The real Luke Skywalker would never want anything to do with a former Imperial assassin. Not like that. Mara tried not to notice how that realization made her stomach clench a little uncomfortably. It wasn’t as though she was attracted to him or anything. Not really.

This was all just a pretense so she could get him out of the public eye before he did anything disastrous to his reputation. Which was probably already ruined if any of the bar patrons who had seen his ‘performance’ had recognized him. Oh, well, she could always come back later and knock a few heads about just to make certain that they didn’t remember anything they saw.

Luke was following her quite happily now, chattering about the many different ‘missions’ he’d supposedly been on. Mara wondered if he wasn’t starting to regain a little bit of his senses, because she recognized a little bit of truth in his tales of his exploits, although they were admittedly exaggerated. It wasn’t very long before they were riding in the turbolift up towards Mara’s apartment. Now she just had to figure out a way to knock him unconscious – nicely – before he expected her to make good on her promise.

TBC...

FIC: It's a Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand Part Five

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:36:02 GMT

Here's the next part for this story. Good news is, I finally finished it!

Part Five

For some reason, he kept feeling like he had to shake his head to rid it of imaginary cobwebs. Luke couldn’t figure out why that was. Maybe it had something to do with the way Han and Leia had turned on him. Those traitors! he thought to himself once again, and decided that he should probably do something about their treachery. Maybe report them to the NRI or something…or maybe he should just put glue in all their socks. Either way, it should be something really, really bad for trying to keep Luke from completing his mission.

The mission! Damn, I keep forgetting about the mission. Why is that again? Oh, yeah, Han and Leia are spies! I should do something about that…after the mission. Focus, Skywalker! The mission comes first, then the revenge…

Shaking his head for the cobwebs, Luke added grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes to try and clear his thoughts. Now, what was that mission again?

He cursed Han and Leia and pulled his Jedi cloak tighter around his face. It was imperative that no one recognize him or the mission was certain to be compromised. If only he could remember exactly what the mission was, this would be so much easier. He skulked – heh, skulked…that’s a neat word…skulked skulked skulked – a little further down the street, not noticing the odd looks he was getting. Even if he had noticed, he was determined not to let it interfere with the mission.

Blast! What was that damned mission anyway?! He paused to lean up against a wall, frowning fiercely as he tried to focus his thoughts again. When he looked up, he blinked at the sight of the bright flashing lights of a club across the street. The vivid representations of scantily dressed dancing girls sparked a memory in his addled brain. There was something about a dancer…

Luke scowled as he concentrated hard to try and bring the thought into clearer focus. A dancer, with dark hair – although that seemed wrong, somehow – and the place she was in was dark, as well. Lots of strange creatures, and he was there, too, looking for something…someone? For some strange reason, the dancer had a weapon in her hand? Pointed at…him?

Luke gasped in astonishment as he pushed himself away from the wall. That was it! The dancer was an assassin, and she was trying to kill him! That was the mission, he had to take the dancer out before she took him out. He paused again as he tried to focus on the dancer’s face, but it wouldn’t quite come to him. Shrugging, he decided to go into the club anyway. Surely, in there he’d be able to find something to lead him in the right direction.

With a new purpose, Luke strode forcefully – ha, Forcefully, I made a joke, he giggled inwardly – towards the club.

There weren’t too many patrons in the small club, but the few that were lounging inside turned to look as the doors slammed open, hit the walls, and then quickly swung back to nearly incapacitate the cloaked figure who’d paused to pose in the opening. There was a long spate of muffled cursing as the man attempted to unsnag the cloak from around his feet where it had tangled when he’d leapt forward to avoid the doors.

When the stranger finally got himself situated, he attempted to walk casually and inconspicuously over to the bar, which was pretty much impossible at this point as every eye in the place was on him. However, when he sat down and didn’t do anything else interesting right away, most of the patrons turned their attention back to what they were doing before he’d entered.

The bartender had even turned back to the conversation he’d been having with one of the beings sitting at the bar, when his attention was called back to the stranger by a loud psssst! Giving the stranger a dubious look, the bartender didn’t move. The noise came again, a little more insistently this time.

Psssssst!!

With a sigh of resignation, the bartender made his way over to the still-cloaked figure and grunted, “Yeah?”

A hand emerged from the depths of the cloak and beckoned the bartender closer. Warily, the bartender shook his head and said, “Whatever you wanna say, just say it, buddy. This is as close as I get.”

A childish harrumph of irritation sounded from the man before he finally flipped the cloak back off his head and glared at the bartender. All he got back in return was a bored glance.

“I am a Super Secret Jedi Master Spy and I am on a super secret mission that requires your assistance, my good man.”

“Yeah, right!” the bartender scoffed and let out a barking laugh. “Super secret Jedi spy, he says,” he called to the patrons at the other end of the bar and all of them burst out laughing.

The cloaked one was extremely incensed. “What, you don’t believe me?!” he demanded.

“Nope.”

“But why not?” the Jedi spy whined petulantly.

“Well, for one thing, if you were a Jedi spy, why would you go around telling everyone about it?”

“But I didn’t tell everyone. You told everyone!”

“So why’d you tell me?” the bartender asked logically.

He had to think about that one for a few moments before he remembered. The mission! And he needed this kind gentleman’s help with his mission.

“I need your help. I’m looking for a woman.”

“If that’s your super secret mission, then sign me up to be a Jedi, too!” the bartender laughed crudely.

“No, no, no, not for that! She’s an assassin and she’s trying to kill me. Now are you going to help me or not?” Luke asked, very annoyed at this interruption to his plans.

“Nope.”

“But why not?!” Luke said, his voice even whinier than before. He thought the bartender actually winced.

“Cuz you ain’t no Jedi. You’re a nutcase!”

Luke gasped in outrage at the man’s lack of faith. “I am too a Jedi!”

“Oh, yeah? Prove it,” the bartender sneered.

“I will! I’ll show you my lightsaver, I mean my lightsaber,” Luke said, choosing to ignore the ribald laughter that erupted at his slip of the tongue. He reached down to his side to triumphantly display the shimmering blade of light that he’d constructed himself all those years ago…

…only it wasn’t there!

That she-witch assassin! She must’ve stolen his weapon! When he said as much to the man he was trying to prove his identity to, Luke was dismayed to hear more laughter and derision. He would prove himself to this jerk if it was the last thing he ever did.

The Jedi Mind Trick! That was the ticket. That one never failed to impress.

With a cocky grin, Luke stretched his arms out in front of him, interlacing his fingers and cracking his knuckles. He hid his brief grimace – stupid bionic hand that he kept forgetting about, dammit – and prepared to dazzle these deluded idiots.

He cleared his throat, and settled his gaze on the bartender, intending to intimidate him with the strength of his glare. Unfortunately, Luke had no idea it merely made him look as though he were extremely constipated. At least, he was unaware of this until one of the bar patrons helpfully pointed it out to him.

Momentarily distracted, Luke turned his Jedi glare on the man and said, “You’re next, buddy!”

This only caused another round of laughter, which only frustrated Luke further.

“Look, you guys have to shut up so I can concentrate, okay!?” he whined.

There didn’t seem to be any inclination of the part of the group to stop laughing until the bartender hushed them by saying that he wanted to hear what exactly Luke was going to do. Luke was thrilled that he had at least one supporter in the place. He almost felt bad that he was going to have to make the man’s brainwaves into mush with his awesome Jedi Mind Trick. To the Jedi’s dismay, however, the bartender continued by saying that he hadn’t had this many laughs all week.

Luke decided that he just had to ignore all that junk and concentrate on the Force. It had never let him down before, and he was certain that it wouldn’t let him down now. Or at least, he really hoped it didn’t. That would suck. Big time.

He went back to his intimidating glare and ignored the giggles this time. Raising his hand, he made a smooth motion with his two fingers and said, “You will admit that I’m a Jedi Master.”

“Nope, still don’t see it,” the bartender said with a smirk.

Luke’s mouth gaped open in astonishment. That had never failed him before! Maybe he didn’t get the hand motion right. Sometimes that could be a little tricky.

Raising up straighter in his seat, Luke motioned with his hand again and intoned, “You will tell me where I can find the spy.”

“I ain’t telling you a damn thing, you weirdo,” the bartender sneered.

Luke let out a shout of frustration that only started the bar patrons laughing again. He imagined for a few moments some really inventive revenge schemes against every single one of them, before deciding that he needed to focus on getting the bartender’s help so that he could continue his mission to look for the dangerous dancing assassin.

Taking a deep breath, he resolved to try one more time to show these idiots with his Jedi Mind Trick what a fantastic Super Secret Jedi Spy he was…and if that didn’t work, well, he’d always had a guilty wish to see if he could make Force Lightning. Bet they wouldn’t be laughing at that. Drawing on all of his inner energy, Luke focused and gestured once again with his hand as he practically growled, “You will give me a free drink.”

“The hell I will!” the bartender burst into guffaws along with the rest of the crowd and Luke helplessly banged his hand on the counter. That stupid bionic hand had to be malfunctioning. It was the only explanation! Then, he was so frustrated, that he began to bang his head on the counter. The others’ howls of laughter only became more pronounced. He stopped the headbanging after only a couple of times, though, because that counter was hard! And…well, it made his head hurt.

At a loss to explain why his Force powers were giving him such trouble, and very embarrassed at the continuing amusement of the people he was trying to impress, Luke turned his back on them with a huff of irritation. He perked up immediately at the sight that met his eyes. All thoughts of the dancer/assassin and proving his Jedi status flew right out of his head with his delight at his new discovery.

“You didn’t tell me you had a karaoke machine!”

TBC...

FIC: Come Home

Sun, 24 May 2009 01:32:05 GMT

Ah, look at this! Another fic! The muse has been rather kind to me today. I wrote both of these stories today. Here's hoping she'll stick around for a while.

Title: Come Home
Author: kayladie
Rating: PG
Pairing: Luke/Mara
Summary: Luke knows what he wants.
Author Notes: Warning! Song fic!! I couldn't resist because I love this song. "Come Home" by One Republic.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or this song, and I'm not making any money from this work.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Chief-of-State Leia Organa Solo, formerly Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, was well used to diplomatic affairs that dragged on for hours too long. She’d endured too many of them to count as she grew up, so she was accustomed to the boredom that often went hand in hand with an event such as this one. She carefully hid a yawn behind her glass as she took a sip.

At the moment, Leia could not even recall what the supposed purpose behind this latest party was. All she knew was that she’d had to practically drag both her husband and her brother through the front doors. Realizing she hadn’t seen either of them for several minutes, she took a quick, discreet look around. Oh, there was Han, laughing, drinking, and no doubt telling tall tales with Lando Calrissian. Hmm, she might have to cut him off from the bar after the one he was having. He was starting to get that tell-tale flush around his neck as he did when he’d had one too many.

Satisfied at knowing where her husband was, Leia continued to scan the crowd for her brother. She’d thought he might be chatting with Wedge, Corran, Tycho, and the other Rogues, as they tended to drift together at most of these parties. If not them, he usually could be found talking with Kam and Tionne, Kyp, or some of the other Academy teachers. Not there either, she realized and started to frown. He was so going to get an earful from her if he’d managed to slip out the door…

Then she saw him. He was talking with Talon Karrde and Mara Jade. In fact, he seemed to be staring rather intently at Ms. Jade. Leia’s frown deepened in confusion as she realized that Mara seemed a little uncomfortable with the weight of Luke’s gaze. Leia had never seen Mara Jade so discomfited before. She continued to watch in interest as Talon moved away, engaged in a conversation with Shada D’ukal. Luke and Mara exchanged a few very intense words, and finally, Mara shook her head firmly, then turned and walked away.

Leia’s brow arched in surprise at the frustration evident in Luke’s face and body language. He swiped one hand over his face angrily and sent a baleful stare after Mara’s retreating figure. Leia wondered what the two could possibly have been arguing about. As much as it confused and worried her – given Mara’s realistic promise to kill Luke after they’d first met – Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade had developed an unlikely friendship in the last few years.

Leia knew for a fact that Luke had often dropped by Mara’s apartment on Coruscant, seeing that it wasn’t too far from Leia’s own home. And she also knew that Mara Jade had been a frequent visitor to Yavin IV and the Jedi Academy, even training with Luke some, as much as she’d resisted the idea at first. Leia had wondered for a while if there was something romantic between them, but they never showed any sign of being anything more than friends in public. Anyway, Luke could never keep any secrets from his twin. He was practically an open book…wasn’t he?

She continued to watch her brother. He stood there leaning against the wall where Mara had left him, his brow creased in deep thought for some time. Then he straightened, and seemed to square his shoulders. Leia thought it looked as though he seemed to have come to a decision. There was a determination in his face and his movements that she hadn’t seen in many years.

Luke walked out to the middle of the dance floor, which wasn’t being used by more than a few couples at the moment. There’d been dancing earlier, but this party seemed to be dwindling down – finally! – and now only two or three couples were taking advantage of the music. Leia wondered what in the stars Luke was up to as he looked at the band leader and nodded in what seemed to be a prearranged signal. The soft tune they were playing tapered off and the lights in the room dimmed, causing everyone to look around in curiosity. A spotlight suddenly shone down on Luke Skywalker in the middle of the dance floor, all alone.

Now everyone’s attention was riveted. Even though it had been nearly a decade since the end of the Rebellion, anything Luke Skywalker related still made everyone sit up and take notice.

“Ladies and gentlemen. A special song for a special lady, requested by the honorable Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master,” the band leader said. Leia watched as the man moved to a piano and began playing a slow tune.

Luke ignored the gasps and whispering and kept his stare intent on one corner of the ballroom. Leia felt her mouth drop open a little in shock as she suddenly had a feeling exactly who this song was for.

The man at the piano began to sing, and Leia felt tears well in her eyes at the depth of emotion presented, for even though Luke wasn’t doing the singing, it was most certainly his own heart that was being put on display.

Hello world
Hope you're listening
Forgive me if I’m young
Or speaking out of turn
There’s someone I’ve been missing
I think that they could be
The better half of me
They’re in their own place trying to make it right
But I’m tired of justifying
So I say to you..

Come home
Come home
Cause I’ve been waiting for you
For so long
For so long
And right now there's a war between the vanities
But all I see is you and me
The fight for you is all I’ve ever known
So come home

Luke raised one arm, palm upwards, in silent supplication for the object of his affections to join him. While everyone else strained to see whom he was ‘talking’ to, Leia moved a little so that she could see her brother’s face. She was unsurprised to still see the look of resolve on his face, but the love shining out of his eyes completely floored her. How had she missed this?

She spared one quick glance to see if Mara Jade was going to make her brother happy or if she was going to break his heart, but she couldn’t see the redhead from where she was standing, so she turned her gaze back to Luke. She watched as he mouthed something. Leia was extremely skilled at reading lips from way back and she couldn’t help a little smile at her brother’s stubbornness. He’d said, ‘I love you and I’m not going to go away.’

The song continued to play and Luke continued to stand there, arm still held out in silent plea. Leia had the feeling he’d stand there for years if he thought she might eventually give in. Hopefully, the equally as stubborn Jade wouldn’t make him wait that long.

I get lost in the beauty
Of everything I see
The world ain’t as half as bad
As they paint it to be
If all the sons
All the daughters
Stopped to take it in
Well hopefully the hate subsides and the love can begin
It might start now…
Well maybe I’m just dreaming out loud
Until then

Come home
Come home
Cause I’ve been waiting for you
For so long

For so long
And right now there's a war between the vanities
But all I see is you and me
The fight for you is all I’ve ever known
So come home

There was a sudden murmuring from the crowd, rising in volume, as movement registered from the edge of the dance floor. Leia’s smile grew as she saw Mara Jade step slowly away from the crowd and towards Luke. Her face was half tender, half exasperation. When Luke smiled in encouragement at her, Leia’s breath felt as though it had left her lungs. She hadn’t seen Luke smile like that since…well, she’d never seen Luke smile like that. And when Mara smiled back at him, Leia thought she’d never seen Jade smile at all.

Mara had reached him now, and slid her hand into his outstretched one. He pulled her close, wrapping his other hand around her waist as they began to sway in a slow dance. The radiance shining off them had the crowd stunned. No one said a word, no one moved, as they watched this love story unfold in front of them.

Everything I can’t be
Is everything you should be
And that’s why I need you here
Everything I can’t be
Is everything you should be
And that’s why I need you here
So hear this now

Come home
Come home
Cause I’ve been waiting for you
For so long
For so long
And right now there’s a war between the vanities
But all I see is you and me
The fight for you is all I’ve ever known
So come home
Come home

The song came to an end, but Luke and Mara continued to dance. They whispered to each other, smiles still bright and happy, in their own little world. Finally, although he didn’t seem to care that everyone else was looking at them, Luke looked up, seeking his twin’s eyes.

There was just a hint of doubt in his expression that told Leia that he worried about her opinion, although she didn’t think that hell itself would be able to tear Luke Skywalker away from Mara Jade at this point. Anyone who made her adored brother that happy was more than welcome in their family, if Leia had anything to do with it. Not that she believed she did, but Leia still made sure to give Luke an approving nod and grin. His answering grin warmed her heart.

Somehow, she had a feeling the people of Coruscant would be talking about this party for years to come.

~END~

FIC: Celebration Confrontation

Sun, 24 May 2009 01:13:58 GMT

Well, haven't been here in a while! So, not going to make any excuses, I'm just going to post some fic. My lovely friend Karen from SSB posted a "First Sentence Challenge". In other words, she wrote the first sentence and we had to write the rest of the fic.

"Secret rendezvous, she suddenly realized, were only fun when they stayed secret." That's the quote, and here's the fic!

Title: Celebration Confrontation
Author: kayladie
Rating: PG
Summary: Mara and Leia are having a little disagreement.
Author Note: This turned out a little different than I think Karen had in mind, but what can you do when the muse takes control?
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and I'm making no money from this work.

~~~~~~~~

Secret rendezvous, she suddenly realized, were only fun when they stayed secret. The sound of an unexpected opening door had Mara Jade Skywalker uncharacteristically fumbling as she scrambled to hide various sheets of flimsiplast with drawings and diagrams and lists scratched all over them. Her co-conspirator wasn’t much more subtle, settling for shoving everything under a hastily raised cushion on the sofa.

By the time Luke came around the corner of their apartment into the living room, Mara and Leia were sitting on the sofa, drinking caf, innocent smiles plastered onto their faces.

“Luke! What are you doing home so early?” Mara asked, her voice only the slightest bit shrill. Well, Leia only winced a little anyway.

“What kind of question is that? You aren’t happy to see your husband of three months, four days, three hours, and…” he quickly checked his chrono, “…twenty-seven seconds?”

Mara glared at him in exasperation. “You know that I am. I just thought you weren’t going to be back until tonight. Leia and I were finally getting the chance for some girl bonding.”

“Ooh, that’s a scary thought,” Luke muttered, then winced as two pillows from the sofa hit him with unerring accuracy from two different directions. “Kidding! I was kidding! Hello, sister dear. It’s lovely to see you.”

“You as well, brother dear,” Leia said with a smirk that looked frighteningly like Han’s.

“The meeting got cancelled. Somebody’s brother had to have emergency surgery or something. Everything’s okay, but they decided to move it to next week.”

“Next week? When next week?” Leia asked, a touch of panic in her voice. Mara nudged her with an elbow while Luke gave the both of them a curious look.

“I don’t know for sure. They haven’t decided on a day yet.”

“Well, try to keep the weekend free, won’t you? I may have plans for us,” Mara said.

“Okay, no problem. We have any hot chocolate left?” Luke asked as he wandered towards the kitchen.

“Why did you say that? You’re going to give it all away!” Leia whispered fiercely.

“Oh, I’m going to give it away? You saw how he was looking at you with your panicky tone!” Mara whispered back.

The two women stared hard at each other, both of them biting back nasty words and holding onto impressive tempers. Luke and Mara hadn’t been a couple long enough for either of them to feel very comfortable with their sudden new relationship as sisters-in-law. The fact of which was why Leia had offered an olive branch in the form of getting Mara to help her with Luke’s surprise birthday party, and was also the reason that Mara accepted graciously. She’d been hoping it would make her feel more comfortable about suddenly being part of a family unit rather than just relying on herself, as Mara had done for so much of her life.

Unfortunately, so far, it had been an unmitigated disaster.

They could not agree on anything, from the time, to the locale, the decorations, or the guest list. And keeping it from Luke had somehow become the most difficult undertaking of the century. This was the third meeting that he’d interrupted by not being where he was supposed to be in as many weeks.

This time when Luke came around the corner, a steaming cup of hot chocolate in his hand, Leia and Mara were practically nose-to-nose, having an argument…all in whispers, naturally, as they were both still determined to keep this a secret.

“What are you two doing?” Luke asked, a frown on his face. “You’re not having a fight, are you?”

“What? No! Don’t be ridiculous, Skywalker,” Mara said, at the same time as Leia was saying, “Of course we’re not!”

Luke grinned at his wife and said, “You know you can’t really call me Skywalker in that tone anymore. It is your last name, too.”

“A few marriage vows aren’t going to make me any easier on you, Jedi,” Mara retorted.

“I like it when you don’t go easy on me, Jade…Skywalker,” Luke said, attempting one of Han’s leers.

“O-kay, I think that’s my cue to leave,” Leia said, as she got to her feet. “Mara, I’ll comm you tomorrow about that, er, thing.”

“Right. I’ll be working on it some tonight. I’m thinking you’ll really like some of my ideas,” Mara said, a defiant gleam in her eye.

“We’ll see,” Leia said, noncommittally. She gave Luke a quick hug and kiss, and then she was out the door.

After his sister had left, Luke turned a questioning look at his wife. “Were the two of you arguing? Because it really looked like an argument to me.”

Mara sighed, somewhat frustrated. It wasn’t that she didn’t care for her sister-in-law, but Leia was so stubborn! She refused to admit that Mara might know her husband as well as she could know her twin. Still, they were trying to work together, and Mara could tell that Leia was trying…it was just hard for her to give up on the ‘big sister’ role, even if they didn’t know which of them was actually the older one.

“We’re just working on a project together, and we have some really differing opinions on it, that’s all.”

“Hmm, I see,” Luke said, as he sat down beside her on the sofa. He carefully put his mug down on the table before wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in for a slow and gentle kiss.

Mara relaxed into his embrace, surprised as usual at how comfortable and right it felt to be in Luke’s arms. The kiss lingered for a few minutes before he pulled back to smile softly down at her.

“This project wouldn’t happen to be my so-called surprise birthday party, would it?”

Mara’s mouth gaped open in shock and she reared back, hitting him sharply on the chest. “How did you know about that!?”

“Ow!” he exclaimed as he rubbed the spot she’d whacked. He sent her a look and she rolled her eyes before muttering a quick ‘sorry’.

“Seriously, Mara, what do the two of you think the term Jedi Master means? I share a bond with you, and Leia’s always been crap at shielding, especially from me.”

“But we wanted it to be a surprise!” Mara said, her voice coming dangerously close to a whine not unlike Luke’s adolescent one.

“Hey, I’m very thrilled and flattered that you’re attempting to work with each other on this. I know you and she haven’t really gotten along, and I love that both of you are trying to work past that just for me.”

“Well, it’s not going so great so far,” Mara grumbled.

“That’s kind of why I wanted to talk to you about it and not Leia. I know it’s not logical, but she feels like she’s lost me. Even though in her head she knows that’s not true, in her heart, she feels it is. It’s been her, me and Han for so long, that she’s just finding it a little hard to let go. Do you see what I mean?” he asked quietly.

“I can. And she feels like I’m taking you away. But I don’t want to separate you from your family, Luke. I’ve never wanted that.”

“I know. Deep down, Leia knows it as well. But she is a Skywalker, and we’re not known for our patience,” Luke said with a smile.

“Oh, I don’t know. You were pretty patient while you were waiting on me, weren’t you?” Mara said, as she leaned in to give him another sultry kiss.

Luke was a little breathless when they parted; actually, they both were, and Mara was thinking of suggesting that they move to the bedroom. But she wanted to make one thing absolutely clear first.

“You had damn well better act surprised at that party, buster, or I will tell Leia that you knew about it beforehand,” she threatened.

“I promise. Now, c’mere, you.”

Mara let him pull her towards the nice, big bed in their bedroom, where they didn’t think about parties or sisters or sisters-in-law for quite some time.

And when the big day finally arrived, Luke looked appropriately stunned at all the effort his wife and sister had gone to to make his birthday a happy one. Mara grinned at his quick little wink to her, right before she gave him a big kiss right in front of all their friends and family. To her relief and delight, her sister-in-law was smiling just as brightly as everyone else at the newlywed’s smooching.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be as hard to be a part of a family as Mara had imagined.

~END~

FIC: It's a Jedi Thing Part Four

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:28:27 GMT

Sorry to be a little late with this one; been kinda busy lately!

Part Four

That pretty much ended the whole diplomatic envoy to try and convince the Terrissians to join the New Republic. Thankfully, the mission actually turned out to be successful as it was discovered – a little after the fact, in Han’s opinion – that it was the hotel’s fault for Luke’s condition. In their guilt, the Terrissians even agreed to a few concessions that Leia would have thought to be impossible to gain.

Apparently, the reason that the pindi shrooms had been extinct was that they’d been found years ago to have serious adverse affects on Jedi. The stuttering scientist who’d explained it all to a severely displeased Han and Leia had said something about it being something in the Jedi’s blood that reacted badly with something in the shrooms. Unfortunately, not much more than that was known, although they did say that the effects should wear off within a standard week or so.

In the meantime, Han and Leia were a bit uncertain exactly what they should do with Luke. Because one of the effects of the shrooms was that he wasn’t going to sleep at all for the next several days. They were advised to keep a close eye on him as when the ‘high’ wore off, he would fall into a deep sleep, almost a state of unconsciousness, for several hours. Han didn’t think his temporary answer of stunning Luke with his blaster would go over as a long-term solution. And he didn’t even mention it to Leia, seeing as how he was back to trying to squirm his way into her good graces again.

After much arguing, they finally decided to take away all Luke’s weapons and tools and keep him confined to his cabin on the Falcon, and in their own apartments once they got back to Coruscant. Leia was faced with the task of canceling all her brother’s appointments for the next week, and the only excuse she could come up with was that he was ‘ill’.

The trip back to Coruscant wasn’t too bad, and it only took a day anyway, so Luke didn’t seem to get too upset that they wouldn’t let him out of his cabin. In fact, he seemed quite happy to stay there if one of them stayed with him so he could babble at them endlessly about every single nonsensical thing that came into his head. The Solos quickly learned to take turns in that duty, as there was only so much of that a sane person could take.

Han and Leia had both worried that Luke would use the Force to let himself out, but his Force skills seemed to be a bit muddled along with his senses. The trouble began on their third day back in their apartment on Coruscant. Luke suddenly declared that he had a mission and started trying to leave. Nothing Han or Leia could say would convince him that he needed to stay put and he even started to get a little angry with them for not letting him go.

Leia ended up having to cancel most of her own appointments because it was becoming a full time job just trying to keep Luke in the damn apartment. She worriedly sent the children to stay with Winter and they spent the next two days frantically interrupting all of Luke’s escape attempts. Obviously, his Force skills were coming back a little sooner than his wits were.

Which was how they’d ended up in the situation they were in now. Luke was lying on the floor between the two of them, unconscious, and Leia was glaring a hole through Han again. Rather, she was glaring at the blaster in his hand.

“I cannot believe you shot him again, Han! Are you insane!?”

“Leia, he was out on the balcony about to start climbing towards the roof! What did you want me to do!?”

“Ohhh, this whole mess is insane, that’s what it is. I can’t do this anymore, I’m losing my mind,” Leia groaned. She turned away from Han, both hands rubbing at her temples as she could feel a vicious migraine begin to pound throughout her skull.

“Aw, sweetheart. I know it’s been hell, but-” Han started. He couldn’t stand to see Leia in pain or upset. “It’s only one more day. We just gotta keep tellin’ ourselves that. One more day. Luke’ll probably wake up tomorrow and be his old self and he’ll wonder what the heck happened to his week,” Han said, trying to encourage her with a familiar lopsided smile.

Leia half-turned back towards him, and couldn’t help the little giggle that escaped her. “You know he’s going to be so embarrassed by all of this, don’t you?”

“Oh, I’m counting on it, your worshipfulness. This’ll be blackmail material for years to come,” Han said with a wicked grin.

“You scoundrel, you,” Leia said affectionately. She gave a heavy sigh. “I’m really sorry to have put all of us in this position.”

“What have you got to be sorry about? This is not your fault. It was those damned Terrissians, not doing their proper research, that’s what caused this.”

“Yes, but if I hadn’t insisted that Luke go along, then none of this would have happened,” Leia said, and sniffled a bit guiltily.

“There was no way you could have seen this one comin’, Princess,” Han said softly. “Don’t blame yourself. How many times has Luke gone on a mission like this with you and nothing happened at all?”

“Actually…not that many. He really seems to attract trouble,” Leia said with a little frown at her slumbering twin. “Maybe I should let him stay on Coruscant from now on,” she said wryly. She glanced back up at her husband and gave another sigh. “You know what the worst part of this is?”

“What?”

“This is the first time in ages that you and I have had so much time to spend together and all we’ve been able to do is baby-sit Luke.”

Han’s libido immediately perked up at his wife’s words. They’d not even had the time to kiss each other for the last six days, much less anything more intimate than that, and it had been a very long time since Han Solo had gone more than a day or two without intimacy with his wife. He gave a quick glance down to where Luke lay senseless on the floor and then raised his gaze to Leia’s face. By the gleam in her eyes, he could tell she was thinking the same thing.

“He’s, ah, probably going to be out for at least an hour,” Han said casually.

“Uh-huh,” Leia agreed.

“So-ooo, if you wanted to, you know, go to the bedroom for a bit and, uh, do some other stuff…” Han said, his words trailing off as Leia’s gaze intensified.

“You’d better be in there and naked in the next five minutes, flyboy,” she growled.

“I can be there in three,” Han said and they both took off at the same instant for their bedroom.

Fifty-three minutes later, Han was feeling pretty damn good. He and Leia were lying side-by-side on their bed, big silly grins on their faces as they stared up at the ceiling. Han reached out to grasp her hand, squeezing it gently in his.

“I love you, your Royalness,” he said softly, as he turned his head to look at her.

“I love you, too, you pirate,” she smiled back. “I guess we’d better go check on Luke.”

“Remember, sweetheart, just one more day. One more day and everything’ll be all back to normal. Just regular people trying to drive us crazy, not your Jedi Master brother,” he said and leaned over to kiss her tenderly.

“Right,” Leia sighed.

“Tell you what. Why don’t you take a little nap? I’ll go get Luke, put him back in the guest room and then I’ll sit and listen to the motor mouth for a while.”

“Oh, Han, would you? You’re so sweet,” Leia said gratefully.

Han grinned at her in delight. He’d just scored major bonus points towards the next time he did something really stupid. Getting up, he grabbed his pants and pulled them back on. He bent over Leia to give her one more kiss before sauntering back to the living room.

And then his heart completely stopped beating for a moment or two. His bonus points were about to be used up right now, because Luke was nowhere to be seen.

TBC...

FIC: It's a Jedi Thing Part Three

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:17:17 GMT

And here's the next bit...

Han wasn’t sure where to direct his gaze once he and Leia had made their way to the roof. On the one hand, it was really funny to see Luke so obviously out-of-control in a way the kid hadn’t been since the early days of their friendship. On the other hand, Luke was…well, naked, and that was a whole lot more of his wife’s brother than he ever wanted to see.

Glancing over at Leia, Han could tell she seemed to have the same problem, only her expression was a lot more worried than amused. Luke was currently bouncing around in a jerky manner, jabbing the stick out in front of him and he was yelling something that Han couldn’t quite understand for the wind currents up here.

“One of the maintenance workers discovered him, and when the man tried to talk to Master Skywalker, he, ah, rapped him on the head with the stick,” the hotel manager said with a grimace.

Han could tell they weren’t going to be invited back to this establishment for a very, very long time. Although, to be honest, that had probably been the case after the discovery of the defaced statues in the garden. Leia turned her head to glare at her husband.

“Han! Do something!” she said in a low voice.

Han didn’t know if she was trying to keep Luke from overhearing them or not, but either way, it didn’t work, because he immediately turned sharply to look at them.

“Han! Leia! I thought you’d never get here!” he shouted gleefully.

Luke started to run towards them, but paused when Han jumped back and shouted “Whoa!” with his hands held out in front of him defensively. “That’s about as close as I care to come to junior, Junior!” he said.

Luke just gave him a puzzled look, and then his face brightened with a fiercely happy, almost maniacal expression.

“I’m so glad you’re here, because now I can finish telling the story. I was trying to tell the story to Fritz, and hey, where did Fritz go anyway? But I was telling him the story and then he kinda wandered off, and okay, maybe I shouldn’t have smited him with the lightsaber, and do you know where my real lightsaber is, by the way? But Fritz was not paying attention and that’s why he got smote but then he left and I really can’t tell the story without an audience, it’s just not the same somehow, but now you’re both here and I can finish telling the story and that just makes me so, so, so, so, so happy…”

Han and Leia and the hotel manager just stood there in amazement as Luke rambled on continuously, somehow never running out of words, and yet he was talking about absolutely nothing. Han remembered once having an old girlfriend that had had the same ability and it was annoying then, too.

Finally, Leia was able to catch his attention and break the non-stop flow of nonsense.

“Luke. Luke! Luke!” She finally had to scream it before Luke took a breath. “What story are you talking about?” she asked in confusion.

Han glared sideways at her. She’d just managed to get him to shut up and now she was inviting him to get started talking again?

“Only the greatest story ever told! It said so in all the holomags and all over the holonet, too! It’s the story of…” he paused and then struck a hilariously dramatic pose with the stick held tightly in both hands in front of him. “…good versus evil. Light against Darkness. It’s the story of how one young boy from a desolate, desert planet rose from obscurity to vanquish the most wicked of foes…”

“Oh, my gods, isn’t that how the narration goes at the beginning of that awful docudrama about him that Luke absolutely despises?” Leia whispered in horror at Han.

“I think you’re right. Heh, I always thought he did protest a bit too much, that faker,” Han snickered.

Leia glared at him furiously, and Han winced to himself. He had a bad feeling he’d just undone all the kissing up he’d been doing all afternoon. In front of them, Luke was still quoting the docudrama, which told Han for certain that the kid really secretly liked the tacky thing, because who memorized something they supposedly despised?

“…‘and when they met in the swirling clouds of Bespin, the young Skywalker quickly discovered that the villainous Dark Lord was still more than a match for his untested skills.’ Hey guys, we’re almost to my favorite part. Do you know what my favorite part was, do you? Really, most people think it was the bit where I actually tagged old Buckethead on the shoulder, but that’s not it, that’s not it at all. Do you want to know what it is, do you?” Luke asked eagerly, once again getting his parts a little too close to Han for comfort.

“Er, yeah, tell us what your favorite part is, Luke,” Han said, backing away a step or two and hoping that Leia didn’t notice and get even madder.

“Buckethead?” Leia said in disbelief. Neither of them had ever heard Luke talk about his father in such a disrespectful manner.

Luke paused in his story and turned to look at his sister. “Yeah, you didn’t ever notice that shiny black helmet looks just like a big ol’ bucket? Funny, I thought everyone saw that. Anyway, I only call him that cause I care, right?” Luke laughed uproariously at his own joke and then quickly turned his rabid attention back to Han. “So, my favorite part! Like I said, everyone thinks it’s when I tagged him…” his voice dropped to a very loud whisper, “…don’t tell anyone, but that was a total accident. I so got lucky on that one!”

Again, he took a moment to giggle at his own sneakiness. Han was appalled. Luke giggled like a girl. That was something they’d have to work on after this mess was all over.

“My most favorite part of the whole Bespin ordeal…oh, I really hate that word, don’t you guys? Everyone kept saying afterwards, ‘Oh, Luke, how are you after such an ordeal!’ or ‘Oh, Jedi Skywalker, you must be so traumatized after such a horrible ordeal!’. It really started getting on my nerves, too. And it’s such a weird sounding word anyway. Orrrr-deeeeal. Doesn’t that just sound like a weird word? So, in my head, I started calling it the Bespin Thingy. That sounds a lot better, I think,” he said with a decisive nod.

Han sighed in irritation. This could take a while, it seemed. “Your favorite part, Luke?” he prodded, while trying to figure out if there was a way they could talk him into at least putting on a robe or something.

“Favorite part of what?” Luke asked Han, giving him a questioning look.

Han’s attempted smile probably more closely resembled a grimace, but he was trying, really he was. Surely Leia had to appreciate that much.

“Your favorite part of the Bespin story, Luke,” he said patiently.

“Oh! Oh, yes! I remember now. It’s when I flew, of course! You’d never believe me if I tried to tell you how exhilarating that was. Course, I also thought I was gonna die, but that’s really just details. Hey, do you want to see how I did it? I was totally cool and awesome about the whole thing, I really was! It went like this.”

Luke turned and ran over to the ledge of the building, leaping up onto it, somehow still possessing his customary grace despite the fact that Han was certain he’d absolutely lost his mind. Beside him, Leia let out a little shriek of dismay at Luke’s casual prancing on the edge of a building that was forty stories high.

“He’d just sliced off my hand…and how mean was that of him, by the way? I mean, not only did he totally abandon me, never get me any lifeday presents or anything, he cut off my kriffing hand! And let me tell you, that shavit hurt! A whole, whole lot!”

“Is that when you got the bionic hand, Luke? Why don’t you, uh, come over here and let me see that?” Han said, hoping to play along and get Luke off the ledge before both he and Han’s marriage went splat.

Luke started to hop off the ledge, saying “Sure!” with a big grin, when he paused. “Hey, wait a minute. Aren’t you the guy I’ve been battling the entire weekend? You…you tried to frame me with those destroyed statues in the garden. You’re working for the Imperials, aren’t you?” Luke said suspiciously.

“Destroyed statues in the garden?” Leia asked in confusion before sending a knowing glare in Han’s direction.

Han groaned to himself. Well, that was it. He might as well start looking up divorce lawyers on the holonet. Still, maybe he could salvage the situation a little.

“No, Luke, it’s me, Han. Remember, I’m only deep undercover. I’m still a rebel, but I’m working with the Imps to find out who poisoned the water supply on Kelex Van.”

“Kelex Van?” Luke said, just a shade of doubt still in his tone. “Oh, yeah, I do remember that now. You’d better be careful around here, Han. I think there might be an Imperial spy lurking in the building. If he should see me talking to you, your cover could be blown. Hey, do you think Fritz is the spy?! Is that why I had to smite him?” Luke asked excitedly.

“The story, Luke, you were telling us the story of what your favorite part of Bespin was,” Leia said urgently, suddenly butting into his big plan. Okay, so it might not have been that great a plan, but at least Luke’s parts were a safe distance from him now.

“Don’t encourage him to think like that. What if he decided to go looking for some spy in the hotel? Can you imagine the diplomatic incident that would generate?” Leia whispered harshly as Luke began to ramble on again about the battle of Bespin.

“Oh, like this isn’t creating a diplomatic incident as we speak?” Han whispered back hotly.

They had both sort of forgotten about Luke for a moment, his babbling having faded into the background as they glared vibrodaggers at one another, but then Luke suddenly shouted something that jerked their attention back to him.

“And then I jumped! Like this!”

Leia squealed and Han screamed – he told himself it was definitely not a squeal on his part – as Luke threw himself over the edge of the building…

…and hovered there in midair.

Han gaped at him. Man, how strong was the kid in the Force if he could be whacked out of his head and still levitate himself. Han had to admit, even if only to himself, that he was impressed.

Luke looked less impressed than simply confused.

“Han!” Leia’s voice sounded weirdly strained for some reason and then Han looked more carefully at her. And realized she was the one using the Force to keep Luke from developing a very intimate relationship with the duracrete forty stories below them.

It was obviously no easy task as she was trembling with the effort and Luke was squirming around as he hung suspended in space, almost as if he was still trying to fall. Recovering from his shock slightly, Han realized he was attempting to do just that, muttering to himself about snooty, interfering sisters and nothing ever going his way.

Still a whiner, even when he’s nuts, Han thought snidely before he turned to look at Leia again.

“Han, do something! I can’t hold him like this for long. He’s fighting me, and even as addlebrained as he seems to be, he’s stronger than me!” she ground out through clenched teeth.

So, Han pulled out his blaster and shot Luke.

Instantly, the Jedi’s body went limp and he came hurtling towards his sister and brother-in-law as his resistance to her Force pull disappeared. With a yelp, Han sidestepped quickly before Luke’s flying body, his naked flying body, could touch any part of him.

“HAN! YOU SHOT MY BROTHER!” Leia shrieked in the most unholy, angry, outraged tone he’d ever heard her use. She hadn’t been that shrill since the day she’d screamed at him when they were trapped in the Death Star’s garbage compactor.

“What?! It was set on stun! He’s off the ledge and out of danger, isn’t he!”

With one more glare that would have paled Tatooine’s heat in comparison, Leia turned to the manager and efficiently arranged to have Luke brought a robe and moved back down to their suite. Han was kind of worried she would be making arrangements to have her husband tossed off the roof, but luckily she gestured for him to follow as they moved Luke into the building.

TBC...

FIC: It's a Jedi Thing Part Two

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:50:05 GMT

Here's part two of the story...

Han awoke the next morning sore and aching from trying to fit his almost two-meter frame onto a less than one-and-a-half meter couch. When Luke came out of his room and stretched lazily, Han shot him a glare that might have killed someone who wasn’t a Jedi. Luke was about to tease Han further when he noted the truly irritated frown on his brother-in-law’s face and decided he may have pushed Han far enough.

He was glad for this decision because Luke definitely needed Han on his side when the door to Leia’s room opened and they immediately got another lecture on why they weren’t ready to go down to breakfast yet. Between the two of them, they managed enough apologies and morose faces to quell Leia’s irritation a little bit.

Unfortunately, Leia not being quite as miffed at them did not make the day to come any less boring. The only thing they both agreed that they were looking forward to was the banquet lunch the hotel had provided. Apparently, this place was renowned for its fine cuisine. By the time lunch finally rolled around, Luke couldn’t have cared less if it was dirt and grubs. He was starving.

When he said as much to Han, his brother-in-law gave him a pitying look.

“Didn’t you know, Luke? It is grubs. It’s quite the delicacy here, from what I’ve heard.”

Luke grimaced at him in distaste. Sure, he’d been known to eat about anything, but grubs? Then he noticed the mischievous twinkle in Han’s eye and flushed in embarrassment. How mortifying was it that he was thirty years old, a respected war veteran, and a Jedi Master on top of all that, and Han was still able to make him believe almost anything that he said?

It really wasn’t fair that some people could lie so well and so convincingly.

“You big bantha turd,” Luke said, just a little too loudly, causing some of the other guests standing nearby to cast curious glances towards where they stood in line waiting to fill their plates at the sumptuous buffet.

From Han’s other side, Leia’s eyes instantly pierced him with a sharp glare and Luke mouthed ‘sorry’ at her, blushing even redder.

“Bantha turd? That the best you can come up with, Kid?” Han said under his breath as he snickered.

“You’re just lucky I don’t have my lightsaber with me, or we’d see what the best I can come up with is,” Luke whispered back fiercely.

“Lightsaber threats, Luke? Really? Not very becoming of a Jedi, is that?” Han sneered.

“I’m pretty sure the Jedi Code would make an exception for an obnoxious smuggler who must have somehow conned a princess into marrying him.”

“Hey!” Leia’s glare again, and it was Han’s turn to mouth ‘sorry’. “That’s hitting below the belt, Junior!” he whispered, probably still a little too loud, judging by the looks they were still getting.

“Well, you-” Luke started, and then he had to hold back a yelp as Leia viciously pinched him on the shoulder. He didn’t feel too badly about that since he saw that Han was rubbing his own shoulder and sending Leia an extremely affronted look.

“I am beginning to think that I should have brought Jacen and Jaina on this trip with me. Honestly, when I’m comparing you to two-year-olds, don’t you think it’s time to grow up?!” she hissed at them.

“Sorry, Leia.”

“Sorry, dear.”

“I don’t want to hear any more apologies. I want an immediate improvement in your behavior. Am I clear?”

The two of them nodded mutely. But as soon as her back was turned, they glared at one another, each vowing silently that the war wasn’t over yet. However, they were both willing to acknowledge that they should cease hostilities for the moment in the interest of avoiding the wrath of a certain Alderaanian princess.

With that situation temporarily settled, Luke turned his attention to the mouthwatering array of food that was presented on the tables in front of them. Eagerly, he began filling his plate, pausing from time to time to ask one of the attendants about any dish he didn’t recognize.

“Those, Master Skywalker, are pinda shrooms, a particular delicacy of Terriss, as they are extremely rare. In fact, they had been thought extinct, until a batch was discovered on the island of Drindal off the coast of Cortania. They were brought here especially for you, our honored guests,” the man standing at the center of the buffet tables beamed.

He turned out to be the head chef and Luke thanked him as he scooped several of the tempting looking treats onto his plate.

“Oh, it’s my pleasure, Master Jedi! I do hope you enjoy them.”

Luke thought if the man smiled any wider, his face might split.

“What’d he say those were?” Han asked.

“Pinda shrooms. I love shrooms, we used to have them all the time on Tatooine. Not much else we could grow out in the desert.”

“Ugh, I can’t stand them myself,” Leia murmured quietly, not wanting to offend their hosts. “Here, Han, take mine for me,” she whispered, discreetly scraping the few she’d had on her plate onto Han’s.

“No problem there, sweetheart, I’d do just about anything for you, you know,” Han said with a sickeningly sweet smile.

Leia gave Han a half-hearted glare as Luke mimicked gagging behind her back. Han ignored him and turned up the wattage on the smile. He was rewarded when Leia’s face softened into a smile as she patted his cheek.

“You old scoundrel, you’ll never change.”

Luke rolled his eyes in disbelief, and then choked when Leia turned to him, the scowl returning to her face.

“Would you hurry up, Luke? You’re holding up the line.”

Luke tried to ignore the triumphant look on Han’s face, having to resort to reciting the Jedi Code several times under his breath, but it was hard, very hard.

~*~*~

By the time they were ready to go down to dinner that evening, Han had almost managed to soothe Leia completely out of her irritation at him. It had helped that Luke had wandered off to tour some of the gardens on his own, leaving Han to steal a few kisses from his princess. When a knock came on the door of their suite, Leia was still blushing from the naughty things that Han had just been whispering in her ear.

“Ignore it,” Han urged, leaning over her on the small couch to try and kiss her again.

Leia giggled, and Han knew he was home-free then. There was no way she could still be angry at him and be able to giggle.

“We have to answer it, Han. It’s probably the Ambassador’s Aide coming to escort us down to the dining hall.”

“I’ve got what I want to dine on right here,” Han said, leering suggestively at her. Again he tried to maneuver her beneath him on the couch, but suddenly he was falling face-first into the cushion and Leia was standing up in front of him with a smirk on her face.

“Damn Luke and his damn Jedi teachings,” Han grumbled under his breath.

“Look, I know you’re not exactly thrilled with all this diplomacy and posturing. I’m not overjoyed by it myself, you know, but it’s necessary, and we’re almost through it. Only one more day to go and we’ll be back on our way to Coruscant and our children,” Leia encouraged.

Han sighed, feeling just a tad guilty for all the headaches he and Luke had given Leia over the last two days. But not guilty enough to be sorry about that water blaster battle. That had been fun! And he still thought that Luke had cheated somehow to soak him so thoroughly.

“You’re right, sweetheart. Get the door and I’ll see if I can find out where Luke got himself off to.”

“Thanks, Han,” Leia said with a smile.

He was just reaching for his comm to see if he could contact his brother-in-law when a commotion rose at the door where Leia was talking not to the Ambassador’s Aide, but to the manager of the hotel.

“What’s the problem here?” he asked as he came up behind his wife, who was looking unusually flustered.

“It’s Luke. Apparently, he’s gotten himself into trouble.”

“Well, that certainly doesn’t surprise me,” Han said wryly. “What’d he do, try to rescue some damsel in distress and tick off her boyfriend or something?”

“Um, no, not exactly,” Leia hedged.

“What is it then?”

“He’s, ah, up on the roof, practicing with his, er, lightsaber,” Leia said, and to Han’s astonishment, a blush rose on her cheeks. “And he’s not dressed.”

Han stared at her blankly for a long moment. “I’m sorry, what? Did he take his shirt off or something and offend some high-society matron?”

“No-ooo,” Leia said slowly.

“And didn’t he leave his lightsaber stashed on the Falcon? Did he have a spare?”

“Han, Luke is on the roof pretending that a big stick is his lightsaber and he’s totally naked,” Leia said bluntly.

TBC...

FIC: It's A Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand Part One

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:16:26 GMT

All right, so I'm going to start posting some fic! The first is a SW story that I started some time ago, and never finished. It's not quite done yet, but I've made a lot of progress on it and it's almost finished, so I feel safe in starting to post.

Title: It's a Jedi Thing; You Wouldn't Understand
Author: kayladie
Rating: NC-17 (but not until the end)
Fandom: Star Wars
Pairing: Luke/Mara (but not until the end)
Summary: Luke gets hold of some bad shrooms, dude! And various hijinks ensue...
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I'm making no money off this work.

Part One

Luke Skywalker was pouting. He admitted to himself that it was a rather juvenile thing to do, but he didn’t care at the moment. Of course, Leia didn’t care either. She was still going to make him go, even though she knew he didn’t want to. His voice got the whiny tone that occurred whenever he was irritated or stressed, because sometimes that made Leia back down. She hated the whiny tone.

It wasn’t working right now.

“I don’t see why I have to go. What possible good can I do there? I am not a diplomat.”

“Luke, we are not discussing this any more. I have already told you why you have to go. You are the only living Jedi Master. The Terrissians revere the Jedi. The New Republic needs Terriss as a member. I cannot make it any clearer than that,” Leia said in exasperation.

Honestly, sometimes talking to Luke or Han was no different than talking to one of her children. Must be some sort of male gene, she mused to herself, still ignoring the mutinous expression her brother was giving her.

She sighed and tried a different tack. “Luke, you’re not going to have to speak or demonstrate any of your abilities. It will be enough for the Terrissians just to know you’re there and be able to see you.”

“Yeah, so I’ll be like an animal at the Coruscant Zoo. Ooh, look at the Jedi! Do you know how frustrating that gets?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I’ve never had people stare at me that way!” she said sarcastically. “You know, it’s not just you they’re hero-worshipping here. They wanted to see the heroes from the Death Star. Han and I do have to deal with this on occasion.”

Luke immediately felt ashamed at his infantile reaction. Leia was his sister and she cared about him. She knew he hated this sort of thing, so she wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t truly important. He ducked his head and the lower lip went from being stuck out to being caught between his teeth and he replied, “You’re right, I’m really sorry for being such a nerf.”

Leia’s expression softened. It was very difficult to stay mad at her brother when he gave her that ‘aw-gee’ farmboy look. “I know you don’t want to do this. But it will only be three days and you’ll actually be able to relax a bit. Terriss has some incredible gardens and fountains. It’s quite a beautiful world and I think if you let yourself, you might even have a good time,” she said softly.

He heaved a huge sigh, just to let her know he still wasn’t happy with the prospect, and said, “All right. When do we leave?”

She smiled and gave him a hug as she kissed his cheek. “Tomorrow.”

“What!? But, Leia-”

“We’ll be waiting for you at the Falcon’s regular docking bay, brother dear,” she called out as she was walking swiftly out the door, cutting off any additional protests he could come up with.

She chuckled as she heard a shockingly vivid curse come from behind Luke’s apartment door as she walked away. She straightened her shoulders as she headed back towards her own apartment. Now she just had to go talk Han into this.

~*~*~

She was going to have to kill the both of them; she realized that now. Not only had they spent the entire trip to Terriss baiting each other and nearly driving her mad, once they arrived on the planet she was trying to coax into joining the New Republic, they had acted no older than about fourteen.

Leia could overlook the looks of resigned boredom they both affected in Terriss’ museums; she knew that wasn’t the sort of thing either of them enjoyed. She could even overlook the making faces and drawing doodles on their datapads during the lecture series. She could not, however, overlook the water blaster battle in the hotel lobby. That was truly going a step too far.

Now, having been caught red-handed, they were both frozen in place, staring at her in rueful embarrassment. Han had Luke by the front of his tunic and had his water blaster aimed at Luke’s crotch so that it would appear he’d wet himself. Luke had just unloaded the entire contents of his water blaster on top of Han’s head, causing water to stream down his face.

“Upstairs, now,” she ground out, her fists clenched by her sides to keep herself from pounding the two of them.

They knew better than to protest as they filed silently to the lift and stepped on. Once the doors closed and they were out of sight of curious eyes, they both began talking at once, each blaming the other for their current misadventure.

She held up a hand and said, “I don’t want to hear it right now. We’ll discuss it when we get to the room.”

Han and Luke looked at each other with a grimace. ‘Discuss’ always meant ‘lecture’.

As far as lectures went, Leia felt it was one of her finest. She had harangued them for almost a solid hour, managing to bring up the worst qualities that they both possessed and even a few incidents that she had been letting sit idle until just such an occasion.

After she had finished, on the note that the two of them were personally responsible for the precarious state of the entire New Republic, she told them she didn’t want to see either of them for the rest of the evening and retired to the bedroom that she and Han were sharing in the suite. Luke’s room was on the opposite side of the sitting room that connected the two.

“Guess we should be glad she didn’t find out about those statues in the garden downstairs, huh?” Luke said.

“Guess you better make room for me in your room,” Han retorted.

“No way, you can sleep on this couch.”

“I’m taller than you! You should sleep out here and let me have your bed.”

“Hey, this was all your idea! I’m not giving up my bed for you. You’d better get over to that door and try to sweet-talk your wife if you want to sleep in a bed tonight.”

“I’ll arm wrestle you for it,” Han said.

“Okay,” Luke agreed, a little too quickly for Han’s taste. Then he remembered that he always needed to qualify contests between himself and Luke.

“No Force!”

Luke’s grin disappeared and he muttered what sounded suspiciously like ‘wimp’ under his breath. Unfortunately for Han, Luke was in better physical shape even without the Force due to the strenuous training he underwent almost daily at the Academy. Luke had the poor grace to laugh as he went into his bedroom and shut the door. To sleep in a nice, comfortable bed, Han fumed to himself as he rubbed his sore arm. Seemed to Han that a Jedi Master shouldn’t be allowed to gloat.

Han gave a longing glance towards the door that Leia had closed behind her almost half an hour ago. Hells, he had done far worse than this before. Surely, he could talk her out of her irritation. He was a Corellian, after all.

TBC...

Back from the dead...well, maybe it was just a coma...

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:33:31 GMT

All right, since I've finally been hit by the writing muse again, I figured I'd dust this thing off, and start posting some stories here. Not saying that they'll come fast or anything (world's slowest writer here, remember?) but I definitely have a few in the works.

There's a couple of SV stories, a couple of SW stories, and one crossover that I'm almost embarrassed to mention.

Anyway, I'm almost finished with one of the SW stories (started posting it over at SSB already, in fact) so I will be putting it up soon.

Also, I really need to update my website!

Interests Collage!

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:06:17 GMT

Create your own! By ga_woo using Web Services by Yahoo!

Why do people have to be so obnoxious?

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:48:29 GMT

I still love my job, don't get me wrong, but there are some people....

Grrrr!

So, I had this woman in the shot room today, one whom I've given a shot to at least half a dozen times in the past with no difficulty whatsoever, and today she decided to turn into a massive bee-otch. She gets two injections, and when I gave her the first one, she flinched a little, which isn't unusual. We use one-time-use needles and sometimes they're a little duller than at others. So, I squeeze her arm for the second one (and that wasn't easy, let me tell you...let's just say her New Year's Resolution should be to get DOWN to a size 20...oooh, now I'm being all bitchy, hahaha!) and I give her the shot.

She screams out "OWWW!" and almost yanked her arm out of my grip. I'm putting the bandaid on and she says "That was too rough! You should have squeezed my arm or something!" and then she walks away before I even finish putting the bandaid on her arm.

THEN, she says (and this is the part that got me) "You did that on purpose."

I was flabbergasted! I don't know this woman, have never met her before, have never seen her outside of the office...why the hell would I want to try and hurt her on purpose?! Now I'm obviously not going to give her name here, but her initials are V.D....feel free to make that joke, cause I know I did!!

Anyway, I was almost about to cry, I got so upset about that and I went and talked to the doctor to tell him what had happened. He told me not to worry about it, which was a relief, cause I didn't know if she was going to file a complaint or what.

But it turns out that she just doesn't want me to give her shots anymore, she'd rather have my coworker do them. And here's the kicker. I felt a little better after my coworker told me that V.D. (I'm sorry, that is just SO freakin' hilarious!!) had done the same thing to her before. Accused her of hurting her on purpose because they knew each other in high school and had a falling out or something. So, yeah, I felt a little better after that.

Anyway, just thought I'd vent a little.

Hey, it's better than taking my frustration out on the patients.

Oh, wait....

Naw, just kidding!!!

hd_holidays fic part three

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:53:46 GMT

A Hero All the Same, concluded.

Two weeks later, Draco was about ready to pull his hair out. He’d been to every wizarding library and bookstore in London and had found absolutely nothing that matched the symptoms of whatever the curse was on Harry. That damned doll had to be important somehow, or Harry wouldn’t keep mentioning it, but whatever it was, Draco was having no luck in finding it.

He pondered for a moment if he could get in touch with McGonagall, who was now Headmistress of Hogwarts, to see if he could get into the library there. But he had no clue what he would tell her, and he didn’t intend to tell anyone what he was trying to do for fear they would stop him somehow.

Then Draco felt like smacking himself in the head for his stupidity as it finally dawned on him exactly where he needed to look. Dark curse cast by a Dark Lord? No better place to find it than Lucius Malfoy’s private library at Malfoy Manor.

So the following evening found Draco standing outside the gates to the estate where he’d grown up, the site of some of his happiest memories, as well as some of his most frightening. Lucius had introduced him to the Dark Lord once, not long after Voldemort’s return in Draco’s fourth year. It had been a defining moment, and one of the primary reasons Draco had vowed to stay completely out of the conflict between the Dark and the Light. Voldemort was certifiably insane and Draco didn’t understand how his father could not see that.

He shook those morbid thoughts away with a shudder, and braced himself to enter the house. It still belonged to him, thanks to inheritance laws that dated back centuries, but that hadn’t stopped the Ministry from looting every item of value that had once been inside. Oh, yes, he still owned it, but he couldn’t afford to live there, nor did he really want to. Still, he knew those idiots at the Ministry couldn’t possibly have discovered all the many secrets Malfoy Manor held. Even Lucius himself didn’t know everything about the estate that had been in their family for hundreds of years.

But what secrets Lucius did know, he had passed down to his only son and heir. Even if the Ministry had discovered the secret rooms Malfoy Manor hid, they wouldn’t have been able to gain access to them. You needed Malfoy blood running through your veins for that.

There was a potions lab, a torture chamber, several rooms filled with dangerous dark artifacts, but what Draco was interested in right now was the library. It contained numerous ancient tomes, some written in long dead languages that could never be translated.

He scanned the titles, feeling that he’d know what he was looking for when he found it. One in particular caught his eye, and Draco reached up to pull it from the shelf. Dust and the remnants of Dark magic twirled through the air as he opened it and got to work.

Several hours later, he decided to give up for the night, as his vision was beginning to blur, not to mention the fact that he feared he was going to have nightmares thinking about some of the curses he’d read in the book. Draco hadn’t thought this was going to be easy, but he was bound and determined not to give up.

He spent the next month researching the books in the Malfoy library, but nothing that he could find seemed to fit the curse that Harry was under. Draco also spent as much time as he could with Harry himself, trying to get back into that in-between world that Harry was trapped in, with no luck there either. A couple of times, he tried too hard to force Harry to meet his eyes and Potter went comatose on him. Thankfully, both of these occurred when Petunia wasn’t home, as Draco feared she might ban him from visiting if she found out what he was doing.

Another month went by and Draco thought he might be going mad. Perhaps he had imagined the whole thing and Harry really was beyond help, soulless and destined to stay that way forever. Sometimes he wondered if he’d really never stopped drinking and this was all just an alcoholic vision and he was about to wake up with another ghastly hangover.

He sat on the couch beside Harry, bemoaning the fact that he was useless, worse than useless even.

“I don’t know what to do, Harry. I’ve looked and looked and I just can’t find it, but my gut tells me that it’s at Malfoy Manor. But hell, what if there are vaults that my father didn’t tell me about? I’ll never find them on my own. I fear that it’s hopeless,” he said with a sad sigh.

Harry’s hand brushed gently against his own and Draco looked down at it in surprise, before jerking his gaze back up to Harry’s face to see those green eyes staring into his.

When he fell into the pensieve world this time, it looked suspiciously like the torture room at the Manor, which somehow gave him hope that he was at least looking in the right place. He turned around, looking for Harry and gasped when he saw him in chains again, bound to one of the stone walls that made up the torture chamber.

His feet and arms were shackled, stretching him in a painful spread eagle position and there was another chain strapped tightly across his throat. Draco gave a little cry of horror and tried to move forward, but as usual, found that he could not touch Harry.

“Don’t…give…up…Malfoy. I’m…counting on…you…to fix…this…you little…bastard,” Harry gritted through clenched teeth.

“Nice. Insult the man who’s trying to save your sorry ass, Potter,” Draco retorted automatically.

A wheezing sound came from Potter that Draco thought might have been an attempt at laughter, before he sobered once more. “You’ve…got to…find it soon…Draco. Not…much time…left…”

His words were cut off as a garbled sound of pain was wrenched from him and Draco could see the chain across his throat tightening incrementally, cutting off his air and digging into his skin.

“Fuck, Potter! I’ve got to get you out of this!” He tried to move forward, but still couldn’t get any closer to Harry.

“No kidding…that’s…what I’ve…been trying…to tell you!” Harry gasped. “It’s the fucking doll, Draco! The cursed-” And then he could say no more because he was screaming as all of the chains began to tighten, practically ripping his body apart. Draco screamed his name as he could see blood beginning to spurt from Harry’s arms and legs and neck.

“HARRY!” he cried again and pushed forward with all his might-

-and once again found himself falling to the floor in front of Petunia’s couch.

He jerked over onto his back and stared at Potter in horror. He was once again his usual self, sitting there silently like a doll…

Like a living doll!

Harry had been talking about himself, not that stupid doll that he wouldn’t let go of. That was what he’d been trying to tell them all along! Hermione had even used the actual words and he couldn’t believe he’d been so dense. Draco cursed his own stupidity and was ashamed to think that maybe the Sorting Hat should have put him into Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin. He leapt up off the floor and impulsively hugged Harry tightly to him.

“I’m going to save you, I swear. If only so I can smack you for calling me a little bastard.”

Harry, of course, didn’t say anything in reply.

*~*~*

Draco dove into his research with renewed fervor, now that he knew what sort of spell he was looking for. Still, he almost couldn’t believe it the day he finally found it.

“Partum Victus Forma,” he said softly, his finger tracing the faded words in the ancient book. “The Curse of the Living Doll.” He found himself shaking, with relief, and a little fear that the curse wouldn’t have a counter curse.

And of course, it couldn’t be as simple as a Finite Incantatum, could it? The Curse of the Living Doll was originally used centuries ago on reluctant brides in arranged marriages. Greedy fathers who wanted their daughters to make a suitable match would cast the spell when the young women proved difficult to convince and might have harbored thoughts of running away to escape an unwanted wedding.

The proposed husband would then have to brew a complicated potion, which took nearly three months to complete, and rub it over their bride’s body on the wedding night…right before they effectively raped her, since you had to have sex to activate the potion.

Draco groaned and dropped his head into his hands. This was unimaginable! He was basically going to have to sexually assault Potter in order to break the curse! While he didn’t think he would mind having sex with Potter – Draco was in love with the prat, after all – he didn’t think Potter would be too happy with the situation once he awoke. That is, if it even worked in the first place! It was too cliché for words, reminding Draco of those horrible muggle romance novels that Ellie liked to read, which he had never once looked at, of course.

Reading further, Draco realized he didn’t have much time to make up his mind whether to attempt this or not. Some of those ancient fathers must have kept their poor daughters under this spell for long periods of time, because the book warned that if the curse wasn’t broken within five years, it was permanent and nothing could be done. The fifth anniversary of Potter killing the Dark Lord was only five months away, which meant he had one, and only one, shot at getting this right.

With a grim smile, Draco started writing down the list of ingredients he would need for the potion.

*~*~*

The next three months, while nerve wracking from one perspective, were also comforting in a way. Draco hadn’t felt such a sense of purpose in…well, ever, actually. He’d been too busy spouting out his father’s rhetoric when he was in school to ever do anything meaningful, and the few years after that had been spent moping or drunk. It was pathetic how empty his life had been.

But that was before. He was going to save the Boy Who Lived and that was more important than anything he’d ever done in his entire worthless life. Hopefully, Harry would be able to forgive him his methods.

Draco tried not to think about the day he would break the curse, because it simply made him too nervous. Instead, he focused his entire being on brewing the most perfect potion he’d ever made. He imagined sometimes that he could sense the spirit of Severus Snape watching proudly over his shoulder. Although, Snape would probably have called him ten kinds of idiot for going to so much trouble to save Harry Potter’s life.

He chuckled at the memory of his godfather’s sneer as he dropped in the seven rose petals that were the final ingredient and stirred exactly seventeen times counter-clockwise. Draco sat back and held his breath, studying the potion closely while he checked his watch. Exactly twenty-seven minutes later, it bubbled slightly and then turned from a pale red color to a milky white. He let out a little laugh as he breathed a sigh of relief. He’d done it! Or at least he hoped he had. The potion had turned the right color anyway and that was always a good sign.

Carefully, he poured the potion out into three vials and tucked them into the pocket of his robes, patting them tenderly as though they were galleons. Indeed, he wouldn’t have taken a million galleons for what he had created. No, he was going to have a far greater reward if this worked.

No ifs. It will work! he told himself sternly. Best to think positive, even if that was more of a Gryffindor trait.

Draco was literally sweating by the time the Friday night he’d chosen for the curse-breaking rolled around. Petunia trusted him so implicitly by this time that she was leaving for the weekend to visit Dudley and his family, leaving Draco to care for Harry and the house on his own. He’d casually asked the Weasleys if they planned to visit that weekend and learned that, thankfully, they were going on a mini-vacation with their children and wouldn’t return until the following Tuesday.

Draco waved good-bye to Petunia as she pulled out of the driveway on her way to see her son and granddaughter, trying to resist the urge to run after her and tell her to come back, so he wouldn’t have to do this. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to save Harry; it was that he was petrified it wasn’t going to work and he was quite sure that he would have a nervous breakdown if it didn’t. Not to mention the fact that if it didn’t work, and Petunia or the Weasleys ever found out what he’d done, they would never let him see Harry again.

Petunia’s car disappeared around the corner and Draco let his arm fall back to his side. Releasing one long breath, he mentally shook himself, pulling on the Slytherin cloak of confidence he’d worn so often while in school.

This was going to work, he would make sure of it.

He started to eat dinner and then decided against it, as he feared it would just all come back up once he began the ritual. Draco wondered if he should feed Harry, and then he boldly decided that he’d let Harry take him out to dinner in gratitude after the curse was broken.

See? There was that confident Slytherin! Hufflepuff indeed, he thought to himself with a disdainful sniff.

Draco waited until eight o’clock, just to be sure that Petunia wasn’t going to change her mind and return unexpectedly. He even made up an excuse to call her, claiming he couldn’t find the red jumper that had been Harry’s favorite. She told him where it was and he asked how the granddaughter was doing. Then, of course, it took him twenty minutes to get off the phone as she rhapsodized about the wonders of her son’s child. Personally, Draco thought Jilly was much more adorable, but he would never tell Petunia that. He’d probably never tell the Weasel that either, when it came down to it.

When he hung up the phone, Draco knew it was time. He’d stalled long enough and the sooner he got started, the sooner Harry would be awake again.

He led Harry up the stairs to his bedroom. It was the same one that Harry had used after the Dursleys let him out of the cupboard, but Draco knew it was much nicer now than it had been then. He and Petunia had had many long talks about the wrongs each of them had done to Harry and how very sorry they were for them now.

Well, Draco was about to make up for every nasty name he’d ever called Potter, every fight he’d ever instigated, and every potion he’d ever destroyed just to see Potter get detention. With shaking fingers, Draco unbuttoned Harry’s shirt and pulled it off him. They rarely put shoes on him while he was inside, so at least Draco didn’t have to fumble with shoelaces, but he thought his hands would never be still as he popped the snap on Harry’s jeans. They slid far too easily down Potter’s legs for Draco’s peace of mind.

Finally, Harry was standing silently before him in nothing but his pants and Draco thought maybe those could wait just a few minutes more until he was ready for the ritual to begin. For someone who’d been basically comatose for more than four years, Harry was still in excellent shape.

Draco wondered if the Living Doll curse put some sort of stasis on its victim, so that they stayed exactly as they were when it was cast. Now that he thought about it, that made sense, as those fathers wouldn’t have wanted their daughters wasting away before they could get them married off, now would they? Draco was glad, as not only did Harry’s very attractive body make the thought of what he was going to have to do easier, hopefully it would mean that Harry’s recovery would be swift and easy as well.

Gently, he directed Harry to lay down on the narrow bed. Draco would have preferred a bigger bed for this, but he just couldn’t picture himself having sex with Potter in Petunia’s bed. And Dudley’s room had been converted to her sewing room, no bed available there. Still trembling with nerves, Draco quickly stripped his own clothes off, after having carefully placed the potion vials on the nightstand.

“Oh, this is so wrong. So very, very wrong,” he muttered as he gingerly crawled onto the bed and straddled Harry’s legs. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the first vial and popped the lid off. He poured a generous amount into his palm and then began to rub it into Harry’s chest.

There was no reaction from Harry, but Draco felt his own cock growing hard as he ran his hands over and over the smooth planes of Potter’s chest and the length of his arms. When he had used up the first vial, Draco retrieved the second one and used it on Harry’s legs. Draco’s breathing quickened and he felt a little lightheaded as he stroked down the length of Harry’s legs. Potter never had grown very tall, but he was very nicely proportioned for his size, and Draco had a particular weakness for a good-looking pair of legs.

He carefully rolled Potter over onto his stomach, tugging Harry’s pants off when he did, and used half of the third vial to coat his back and his buttocks with the potion. The other half needed to be saved for the final part of this act, which Draco was really trying not to think about right now. Because, fuck, Potter had the sweetest looking ass he’d ever seen! Normally, Draco preferred to bottom, but he had topped on occasion, and the sight of Potter’s ass definitely brought out the top in him. Which was a good thing, since this ritual required that Harry be penetrated by Draco.

Oh, trying not to think on that just yet! Draco groaned inwardly as he flipped Potter back over. Maybe it would be easier to perform the act from behind, but Draco needed to watch Potter's eyes, to make sure that the ritual worked. He swallowed a huge lump in his throat as he gazed at Potter's cock for the first time. It wasn't much to look at now, as Potter was nowhere near aroused, but Draco hoped that would change.

All right, this was it. Time to finish this and wake Potter up, while thumbing his nose at the Dark Lord and his stupid curses. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against Potter’s slack ones, trying to push aside the fact that he felt as though he were about to have sex with a dead person. Forcefully, he imagined what it would be like when Harry awakened. He could see Harry smiling at him, his eyes sparkling with life, and envisioned the two of them wrapped around each other, Harry so deep inside him that they were like one body.

“Oh, fuck, I can’t wait for that moment, Harry. It’s going to be perfect,” Draco whispered as he kissed and nuzzled Harry’s neck.

He sat back up on his heels between Harry’s legs and pushed Potter’s knees up until he could see his goal. A shiver fluttered through his belly as Draco reached for the last of the potion in the third vial. He coated the fingers of one hand with the potion, intending to prepare Harry thoroughly for what was about to happen. He didn’t know too much about the life of the wizarding world’s saviour before all this had happened and whether he’d ever had gay sex, but Draco was determined that this be as painless as possible for Harry.

Draco’s erection had wilted a bit as he went about methodically stretching and lubing Harry to get him ready. Closing his eyes, Draco brought back that fantasy of Harry fucking him hard and deep as he used the last of the potion to cover his own cock, and it slowly hardened once again.

Draco looked down at Harry’s still body, and silently apologized to him if this didn’t work. He prayed that it did, because Draco didn’t think he’d ever be able to face Harry or look Petunia, Ron and Hermione in the eye ever again if it didn’t.

Releasing a slow breath, and trying to banish his apprehension along with it, Draco lowered himself between Harry’s legs, bracing his weight on one hand beside Harry’s chest and using the other to guide his cock towards Potter’s ass. Sweet ass, Draco thought as he slowly pushed the head of his cock inside.

“Oh, god,” Draco gasped as he inched in a little further. He looked up to Harry’s face and saw a tiny frown line appear between Harry’s eyes. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it? It meant that he was responding, even if it didn’t appear to be very pleasurable for him at the moment.

“I am so sorry, Harry,” Draco said, as he closed his eyes and then pushed hard all the way into Harry’s body, whimpering just a little as he felt his bollocks smack against Harry’s ass.

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Draco muttered because fuck! So tight, and oh, it felt so good. There was a tiny murmur of sound that Draco knew had not come from him and his eyes flew open to look at the man lying beneath him.

The potion he had smeared all over Harry’s body was gleaming in the moonlight that filtered in the window, giving Potter an unearthly glow, and Draco saw that his hands were twitching. He watched Potter’s eyes intently, wanting desperately to see them flare back into life.

Suddenly, Potter’s back arched as he drew in a loud, shuddering gasp, nearly knocking Draco off him, but he gripped Harry’s shoulders, holding on with all his might. Harry’s eyes snapped to Draco’s and he stared at him with a stunned look on his face for what seemed an eternity. Draco could feel his hard-on withering away as he was sure he was about to be vilified by the Boy Who Lived.

“Draco,” Harry breathed his name right before he reached up to yank Draco’s head down into a fierce, bruising kiss. Draco nearly sobbed in relief as he returned the kiss with all the passion he could muster.

Harry’s lips found their way to Draco’s ear and the blond shivered in delight as Harry whispered intently, “Fuck me, Draco. Fuck me hard!”

“Oh, god, yessss,” Draco hissed and he proceeded to do just that.

What a difference it was having Harry as a willing participant to this act! Harry was a loud, aggressive lover, pinching Draco’s ass, nipping and biting at his neck as he screamed at Draco to pound him harder, faster, deeper. Draco’s orgasm was without doubt the most powerful sensation he’d ever experienced in his life, and he thought he might have blacked out for a few moments, because he struggled back to awareness with the realization that Harry was stroking his back and gently kissing his ear.

“You saved me, Draco. Thank you,” Harry whispered to him.

“You saved me first, Harry. I’m just sorry it took me so long to figure it out,” Draco replied, and turned his head so that he could properly kiss his lover.

“Doesn’t matter how long it took. You’re my hero, Draco,” Harry said with a teasing grin.

“I’m the farthest thing from a hero, Harry. That’s your job,” Draco said.

“You are one to me. I can’t believe that I’m finally here with you now. I’ve been wanting to touch you for so long, Draco. I could see you and hear you, but I couldn’t touch you.” As he spoke, Harry’s hands were wandering over Draco’s body, as though he was trying to make up for every moment of lost time all in just a few minutes.

“We have all the time in the world now, love, and you know something else?” Draco asked with a wicked glint in his eyes.

“What?” Harry said, his lips curving into an indulgent smile.

“Your aunt is not going to be back for the entire weekend, so we have the place all to ourselves. Whatever shall we do?” Draco teased.

“I think we can come up with something,” Harry laughed and nudged his cock, already hardening again, against Draco’s hip.

They spent the rest of that weekend just making love, eating, and sleeping. There was a little bit of conversation about the curse and the Dark Lord and Draco’s struggle with drinking, but not much. All of that could wait until another time as they just celebrated being alive, young and beautiful, and in love. Harry laughed a lot and Draco just fell deeper with every chuckle as he realized he’d never before heard Harry laugh. It was a beautiful sound.

Draco was right beside him as Petunia came home and got the shock of her life. Harry graciously accepted her sobbing apologies for the first seventeen years of his life and thanked her for taking such good care of him the last few years.

He was also right there when Harry went to see Ron and Hermione and was smothered with even more sobbing hugs. Hermione even hugged Draco, which was a bit of a shock, but he found that he rather liked the pleasant warm feeling that being hugged by a friend brought to his chest. Draco and Ron mutually decided to just stick with shaking hands, though.

Hermione, naturally, wanted to know all the details about the curse, how Draco had figured it out, how it had been broken. They decided to keep the method of activating the potion to themselves, but Draco thought she suspected something as she kept looking at them with a sharp gleam in her eye. Draco could almost see the moment she decided to let it go, however, as her gaze softened while she watched Harry play with his goddaughter for the first time. She looked back towards Draco and he knew that tender gaze now included him, as well.

Draco was part of a family, a real family for the first time in his life.

Several months later, when Draco and Harry were married in a quiet, simple ceremony with all their friends and family present, Harry had insisted on no alcohol. Not even for the guests, as he didn’t want Draco to have to face that temptation.

What Draco didn’t say, but he was certain that most everyone already knew, was that he no longer needed alcohol to get him through.

He had Harry.

And that was more than enough.

The End!

hd_holidays fic part two

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:47:06 GMT

A Hero All the Same, con't.

“Hold on a moment. Didn’t I read in one of Rita Skeeter’s articles that Potter was practically abused by his muggle relatives? Why in the hell would you let them take him?” Draco asked in disbelief.

Hermione glared at him. “Don’t criticize things you don’t understand, Malfoy. We couldn’t leave him at St. Mungo’s. There would have been people constantly trying to get in to gawk at him, and neither Ron nor I would ever stand for that. We would have brought him to live with us, but I’d found out that I was pregnant only a couple of months before the final battle. I knew there was no way that I could take care of a new baby and Harry as well,” she said huffily.

“What about your in-laws, then?” Draco demanded. “Weren’t they practically like his second family? They didn’t want the burden either?”

“You shut up, Malfoy! You’ve been too busy drowning yourself in drink to understand the horrors the war visited on the Weasley family!” Hermione shouted.

Draco was ready to give right back to her, when a bewildered little voice said from the doorway, “Mummy, why are you and Mr. Malfoy yelling so loudly?”

“Oh! Jilly, I’m sorry, I…” Hermione said and visibly tried to rein in her temper. “Mr. Malfoy and I were just disagreeing on something, sweetheart. I’m sorry if we frightened you.”

“I’m fine, Mummy, but you shouldn’t yell. It’s not nice. You neither, Mr. Malfoy,” Jilly scolded.

“You’re right, of course, Miss Jilly. I apologize for my rudeness,” Draco said and smiled when Jilly giggled at his overly formal tone.

“Silly grown-ups,” she said, and turned back into the kitchen to finish her lunch.

Draco looked over at Hermione. “Well, my vow never to offend you certainly didn’t last long. I apologize again,” he said, a little stiffly as he was extremely disappointed in himself.

“It’s fine, Draco. I shouldn’t have lost my temper and I apologize as well for the crack about your drinking,” Hermione said with a wave of her hand. “But you should understand that the Weasley family was hit hard by the war. We lost Arthur, Fred, and Ginny. Molly hasn’t been the same since, and she’s just not capable of taking care of Harry. She lives with Bill and Fleur because we don’t like to leave her by herself for too long.”

“I didn’t realize that. But still, wouldn’t anyone have done over the muggles that made him live in a cupboard?” Draco asked as his nose wrinkled in disgust.

“Harry’s Uncle Vernon died right around the time of the final battle from a heart attack. He was the one who really hated Harry and all of his magic. I contacted Mrs. Dursley as a last grasp sort of thing, and found that she regretted all that Harry had been through when he lived with them all those years. She leapt at the opportunity to make up for it a bit, and now he lives with her and she takes care of him. Ron and I try to visit as much as we can, but it’s not easy when you have young children.”

Their visit lasted a little longer, but eventually Draco had to leave. He didn’t think he was ready to face Ron Weasley yet and he’d let Hermione decide whether she wanted to tell her husband of her visitor that day. But along with his returned wand, he had the address of Petunia Dursley in his hand before he went. He’d been somewhat surprised that Hermione was willing to give it to him, but he was reminded of the gravity of the situation at her last words.

“I don’t think even you will be able to look at him, Malfoy, and remain unmoved. I’m not really worried that you’ll do anything to harm him.”

*~*~*

The pureblood snobbish part of him that still existed couldn’t help being appalled at the tackiness of the neighborhood that Potter had grown up in, but he forced himself to continue until he got to Number four, Privet Drive. To his astonishment, Potter was sitting in a chair on the front lawn.

Cautiously, Draco walked up to him, wondering if Granger had been jerking him around after all. Potter appeared as though he were enjoying the afternoon sun, and then Draco looked closer.

He was slumped unnaturally in the chair, and his eyes were vacant, staring at nothing. Still, Draco couldn’t resist the impulse to call out to him, as though Harry were going to answer him.

“Potter?”

Nothing. Not even a twitch of an eyelid.

“He likes to sit in the sun. Sometimes he’ll even turn his face towards it,” a voice said from the front stoop, causing Draco to jump in shock.

“Ah, you must be Mrs. Dursley. I’m-”

“I know who you are, Mr. Malfoy. Hermione rang me only a few moments after you left and told me that you would probably be coming round.”

“Right,” Draco muttered. “So you don’t mind if I sit and talk with Pot-…erm, I mean Harry, for a while?”

“I’m not in favor of the idea, no, but Hermione said she’d promised to curse you into oblivion if you tried anything, so I’m not particularly concerned.”

“Thanks for that,” he said, unable to hold back a twinge of sarcasm.

Mrs. Dursley glared at him, oddly reminding him of Hermione Granger-Weasley. “I may not have been there for Harry while he was under my care the first time, but I am now. I’m attempting to atone for my sins, Mr. Malfoy. Are you really doing the same, or have you just come to gloat at the poor fortune that’s befallen your schoolboy rival?” she said sharply.

“My motives may be selfish, but I assure you they are free from any wish to harm or make light of Harry’s condition,” Draco said, and again he couldn’t hold back the slightest touch of haughtiness in his tone. Something about muggles, or certain ones of them anyway, just seemed to bring that out in him.

“Fine. But I’ll be keeping my eye on you,” she said, and with a sniff, she turned back into the house.

Draco ignored the urge to make another retort, but only barely, and turned around to look at Harry. Seeing another lawn chair propped against the side of the house, he grabbed it and set it up next to Potter. He stared hard at the boy whom he’d both hated and been obsessed with for years. A part of him wondered if maybe Hermione and Mrs. Dursley weren’t right about him. Had he come here just to see his rival fallen?

But no, he didn’t think so. Because Hermione was right about one other thing. He couldn’t look at Potter without feeling sad and frustrated and angry about the unfairness of it all. The boy had done everything the wizarding world had asked him to do, and this half-existence was his reward for it? Draco wondered if it might not have been better if Potter really had died on the battlefield.

Pushing such morbid thoughts away, Draco spoke up.

“So, Potter, suppose you’re wondering why I’m here. Well, that’s quite a story, that is…”

*~*~*

In the following weeks, Draco became a regular visitor at the Dursley household. Mrs. Dursley eventually got over her wariness and asked him to call her Petunia. Draco didn’t hesitate to allow her to return the favor, and it was only after she’d actually called him by his name the first time that he realized it was the first he’d ever heard his name coming from a muggle’s lips.

Draco wasn’t exactly sure why he kept going back to see Potter, but it did keep him from dwelling on his drinking, to the point where he hadn’t had alcohol in over two months before he thought about it. He wondered if he was merely trading in one addiction for another, but chose not to think on that one too hard.

During that time, Ron Weasley had found out about Draco’s visits to his best friend’s house, and surprisingly, the explosion was brief and not nearly as violent as Draco had feared it would be. Ron had grudgingly accepted Malfoy’s apology to him, although it was only after yelling for a bit and throwing one vicious punch to Draco’s jaw, which Draco had decided to let go, all things considered. He also gave plenty of warnings about the terrible things that would happen if Draco ever betrayed their trust and Draco wondered if Ron and Hermione wrote their threats together as a married couple. Those that slay together, stay together? Ew, no, that reminded Draco far too much of his Aunt Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus.

Hermione and Ron came to visit Harry a couple of times while Draco was there, but they didn’t stay long. Draco could tell just from looking at the two of them, that seeing their friend like this was entirely too painful for them. So, Draco did his best to make up for their absence – and the absence of any other visitors from the wizarding world, really – by becoming as much of a caretaker to Harry as Petunia was.

She grew to appreciate this because it gave Petunia the opportunity to get a break now and then, to get out and visit her son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter.

He read to Harry, talked to Harry, helped to feed Harry, dressed him and had even given him a sponge bath a few times. Draco had worried that Hermione might not approve of that last bit, since she knew that Draco was gay, but he certainly didn’t want to have sex with Potter right now. It would be like sleeping with a child and the very idea was abhorrent to Draco. No, he wasn’t sure what it was that kept drawing him back into Potter’s world, but he couldn’t deny that the draw was there.

Petunia was over at Dudley’s for the evening and Draco had just finished reading to Potter the play-by-play of the latest Quidditch match between the Cannons and the Falcons. He was a little hungry so he decided to fix himself a snack in Petunia’s kitchen before moving on to another article in the Daily Prophet. As he walked towards the door, something smacked him in the back of the head. Startled, Draco turned and saw a doll lying on the floor behind him.

He recognized it as the doll that normally stayed tightly gripped in Potter’s hand. It was just a little ragdoll, so it certainly hadn’t hurt Draco but he was wondering how it had ended up hitting him when Potter usually wouldn’t let go of it. Draco had asked about that and Petunia had told him that her granddaughter had left it here one day and, while looking for it, Dudley had discovered that Harry was holding it.

When they tried to take it from him, he refused to let go of it. Puzzled, but a little excited at the same time, at this tiny bit of animation in Potter, they’d let him keep it. Draco thought that Petunia, Ron, and Hermione were hopeful that this was a sign of Harry waking up. But it never happened. He’d been holding onto the doll for over a year and had never made any other sign that he was aware of what went on around him.

Draco bent down and picked up the doll, placing it back on Potter’s lap before once more turning towards the kitchen.

Whap!

He whirled around so fast that he actually saw the doll hit the floor after it struck him in the back of the head. A little weirded out, Draco picked up the doll again and walked slowly back over to where Potter was sitting on the couch. Draco squatted in front of the man and studied his face carefully. To his shock, Harry’s eyes shifted suddenly and he looked directly at Draco.

He was falling forward, almost as if into a pensieve, and all around him was a misty grayish-green fog. Draco stumbled, falling onto his knees, and looked around, frightened beyond anything he’d ever known. The mist slowly began to part in front of him, letting him see that he was in what looked like a dungeon, and Draco could see a dark form crouching on the floor a few yards ahead. It was a man, and Draco felt his breath quicken as the man raised his head. Draco realized the man’s hands were chained together, and the manacles were attached to the floor, preventing him from moving.

His mouth fell open in a gasp as he realized the chained man was Harry.

Harry’s mouth moved but Draco could hear no sound coming from him. Frustrated, Draco shook his head and motioned to his ear, indicating that he couldn’t hear. Potter’s jaw clenched in anger and he tried again, and Draco thought it looked like he was yelling.

Finally, Draco could barely make out Potter’s words, almost as though they were whispers instead of angry shouts.

“The cursed doll, Draco.”

It sent an odd thrill through Draco’s belly to hear Harry call him by his given name, but he was still confused as to what Potter was trying to tell him.

“I don’t understand, Potter! What does that mean?!” Draco yelled back at him.

But Potter would only repeat, “The cursed doll, Draco,” over and over again. And then he just started shouting Draco’s name repeatedly.

“Draco.”

“Draco!”

“Draco!”

He started and looked up into Petunia’s bemused face. Then he realized that it had been her calling his name and that for some reason, he was lying on the floor.

“What are you doing down there? Did you fall?” she asked.

“What? No, I didn’t. I was…I was going to the kitchen and then Harry…I mean, the doll…” he looked around for the doll and realized that it was back in Harry’s hand where it always was. “That was so odd,” he whispered.

“What happened?” Petunia asked and she was looking at him as though she was wondering whether he’d lost his mind.

“He dropped his doll,” Draco said, deciding that sounded better than admitting that something or someone had thrown it at him, “and when I went to give it back to him, he looked at me, and I had the oddest…well, I guess it must have been a dream.”

“He looked at you?” Petunia said, with a strange look on her face.

“Yeah,” Draco shrugged.

“You must have dreamed the entire thing, Draco, because Harry does not look at people. He never does.”

“What do you mean, he never looks at people? Obviously, I know he can’t communicate, but-”

“I mean, he will not make eye contact with anyone, Mr. Malfoy,” Petunia said. She walked over to Harry and knelt in front of him. “Harry. Look at me, Harry,” she said, but Potter continued to stare off to the left of her. So Petunia took his chin in her hand and tried to make him look at her. “Harry, look at me!”

Draco watched in a daze as Harry’s eyes determinedly avoided Petunia’s. Even though she was making him hold still, and putting her face right in front of his, his eyes were rolling around, back and forth and then up as much as he could to avoid making eye contact with her.

Satisfied that she’d made her point, Petunia dropped her hand from his chin and stood up and away from her nephew. “If you push it too hard, he’ll actually make himself pass out so that he doesn’t have to look at you. Hermione thinks that it’s connected to the fact that his soul is gone,” Petunia said in a monotone.

“I see,” Draco whispered, and wondered if it all had been just a dream.

“You’re tired, Draco. I think it’s time for you to go home for today.”

“You’re probably right,” he said quietly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Of course.”

But he couldn’t help thinking of Potter, in chains, trapped in a dark dungeon, for the rest of the night. It had seemed so real…

*~*~*

The next couple of weeks passed uneventfully. Draco was doing very well on staying sober, and Ellie was so proud of him that she gave him a month’s free rent as a reward. Draco appreciated that, because it was taking him some time to find another job. He had to find just the right one, one that would allow him enough time with his new addiction…taking care of Harry Potter. He consoled himself with the fact that at least this habit was less expensive than alcohol.

He finally obtained a position in a used book store and it was perfect, since the shop closed at five, and that meant he could spend every evening with Harry. Petunia had taken to shooting him speculative glances when she thought he wasn’t looking, but he ignored her. And the image of Harry trapped, unable to break free, wouldn’t leave his mind. Almost before he was aware that he was thinking it, the idea that Harry’s soul wasn’t gone, merely captured somewhere, began to filter through his thoughts.

Draco decided not to mention this gleam of an idea to Ron or Hermione. They’d been through enough heartache and he didn’t want them to get their hopes up if he was wrong. He chuckled at the notion of a Malfoy protecting the tender feelings of a Weasley, but that seemed to be his life now, and oddly enough, he was mostly happy with it. If he could free Harry, everything would be perfect.

Wait, perfect?

Draco paused in the middle of feeding Harry his lunch as the realization hit him. He abruptly understood what was drawing him here, to be with Harry, to take care of Harry.

Draco Malfoy was in love with Harry Potter.

Well, fuck…

Still, if that was what it was, then that was what it was. It only made him more determined to break Harry free of whatever spell or curse was holding him. Because it had to be a curse, had to be something the Dark Lord had done before Harry killed him. Gritting his teeth against the anger that surged through him at the thought of that bastard getting one last blow in before he died, Draco finished feeding Harry his lunch and then moved him into the living room, so he could see the telly. Draco wondered if Harry really could see the telly and just couldn’t let them know that he could.

Seeing Harry’s doll at his feet, Draco reached down and grabbed it, placing it in Harry’s hand absently, his mind still working around the fact that maybe Harry was aware of what went on around him, but he just couldn’t let anyone know that he was. Harry’s hand opened and the doll fell to the floor. Draco bent and picked it up, placing it in Potter’s hand again.

Again, Harry’s hand opened and the doll fell to the floor. Frustrated, because this was distracting him from his musings, Draco picked up the doll yet again and glanced up to glare at Harry.

And found that Harry was staring right at him once more.

This time, Draco was more prepared for the ‘falling into a pensieve’ feeling and as soon as he landed, he looked around, wondering where Harry was. There was no figure in chains this time, and indeed, he wasn’t even in a dungeon. Instead, it felt like he was back at Hogwarts, in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Carefully, Draco moved forward, wondering what the hell Potter was trying to tell him this time.

He came to a clearing, and in the middle of that clearing was a large wooden box. Hesitantly, unsure if this was a message from Harry or a trap left by the Dark Lord, Draco walked up to the box. Just as he got within a few feet of it, something inside the box thumped, causing both it and Draco to jump.

There was a muffled scream from inside the box and Draco took a step back, uncertain what he should do. Suddenly, a fist exploded through the top of the box, and Draco fell backwards with a startled cry. The lone fist was quickly joined by a second and the top of the box splintered into pieces as the person trapped inside fought their way out.

Somehow, Draco wasn’t surprised to see Harry sit up and step out of the box. He stopped a few feet away from the box and turned around to give it a baleful stare. When he turned back around, Draco thought he’d never seen someone look so tired.

“I’ve been trying so hard to break out of there. Sometimes I can make it and sometimes I can’t. But only with you, Malfoy. Why is that?” Harry asked, as he tilted his head and gazed at Draco curiously.

“I…I’m not sure, Harry. Is there a spell on you? Is it a curse that’s keeping you trapped?” Draco asked.

Harry didn’t answer him, turning his head to one side as though he was listening to something.

“Do you hear that? He’s coming again. Every time I get close to getting out, he comes back and shoves me back into the box, or he chains me up again. It’s annoying, frankly.”

“Who is it, Potter? Is it Vol-”

“Don’t say his name here!” Harry shouted as he whipped his head back around to stare at Draco.

A low rumble threaded through the trees of the forest and Harry began to shiver. “Oh, he heard you that time, yes, he did. You have to go, Malfoy, or you might end up getting trapped here, too. And then neither of us would ever get out.”

“Why can’t I just take you with me now? Come with me now, Harry!”

Harry shook his head sadly. “Don’t you know that it’s never that simple, Draco?” The rumble grew louder and Harry suddenly screamed, his body twisting as though he were in pain. Draco cried out in anger and shock and tried to move forward to get to Harry, but something was holding him back.

Potter fell to the ground, continuing to writhe in pain and Draco was shouting angrily at whatever was doing this to the man he loved, telling them to leave him the fuck alone, but it was no use.

Harry looked up at him once more and whispered harshly, “It’s the cursed doll, Draco.”

And then he vanished, and Draco was suddenly back in Petunia’s living room, falling onto his backside, Harry’s doll still clutched in his hand. He gasped, feeling like he’d just awakened from a nightmare, and he was so irritated that Harry was trapped in that nightmare, unable to escape it as Draco could.

He scrambled to his feet and rested his hands on Harry’s knees, staring into that blank face.

“I’ll get you back, Harry, I swear I will,” Draco said, and he thought that he saw the hint of a smile at the corner of Potter’s mouth.

There was no time to waste. He had some research to do.

Part Three

RESOLUTIONS, BABY!

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 17:14:59 GMT

Okay, so it's New Year's Resolution time again, and I thought I'd go back and look at my last year's resolutions to see how I did.

New Year's Resolutions for 2007:

1. Try to update on LJ at least twice a week (not really realistic to expect every day!) Yeeeahhh...I didn't do too well on this one. It was more like every other month...

2. Try to stay caught up on SSB and SGals. Those girls are my buds, my Star Wars compadres and I've been neglecting them for the Clex....sad and shameful, but true. I did a little better here, but there's still some room for improvement, I think.

3. WRITE! I really need to finish (or at least get some more DONE!) on the half dozen WIPs that I have. And Whisper Your Weakness has got to be my number one priority. It's been more than two years, dammit, that story needs to be done. Well, thankfully, I can say that I finished WYW, so Yay! for that, but I still didn't get as much writing done as I would have liked.

4. Not really fandom related, but since these are my resolutions, it's time to lose weight. For real. Someday, eventually, when I'm ready, at some point.....all those things are NOW, and I have to do it NOW. I'm not gettin' any younger, and when the kid starts making comments about how big mom is, well....yeah, it's way past time to do something about this. Again, I did okay on this. I did lose 25 lbs., but I still need to lose about 50 more.

5. Also, since I'm speaking of the kid and still making resolutions, I need to try and be more understanding and calm with Jacob. I end up losing my temper and just yelling at him way too much. Yeah, he's a difficult child, but it's not his fault and I need to get myself under control before I can expect him to be under control. I think I did better with this than I have in the past. I probably still lost my temper and ending up screeching more than I should have, but I can see some improvement. And that might also be due to Jacob getting a little older and more mature, too, which helps.

All right, so not too bad overall. That's actually a lot better than I've done at keeping resolutions in the past. So, all that being said, here's my list of resolutions for 2008.

1. Lose weight! I put this at number one, cause I think it's the most important one. I'm going to try really hard to get down to my goal weight by the end of the year.

2. Get my finances in order by putting myself on a budget. This one will be the hardest to accomplish, I think, as I'm awful at disciplining myself with money. But I really need to get my credit cards paid off!

3. Try to write at least twice a week, even if it's just a sentence or two. A lot of times with me, it's just getting the motivation to sit down and start. If I can do that, then I usually get more done than I think. I have so many story ideas in my head, I really want to get them out so I can share!

4. Try to stay more caught up on LJ, SGals, SWFF and SSB. I said this one last year, but I think I was too specific. If I stay general (stay more caught up rather than post a certain number of times a week) then I think I'll do better.

5. Give more feedback! I'm terrible, utterly terrible, at letting authors know how much I enjoyed their stories. I'd like to say that I'll give FB for every story I read, but I read an awful lot of fic! So, I'll shoot for at least 50%. If that doesn't seem too difficult, then I may aim for more.

6. I'm going to continue to try and be more patient with Jacob. I need to yell less and praise more. He's my one and only baby, after all.

Wish me luck, y'all!!

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:39:31 GMT

Totally stolen from ginchy! Great idea, girl, this was a lot of fun to do!

Fics I wrote this year :

Multi-Chaps:
Whisper Your Weakness (SW: Luke/Mara) Okay, this one kinda doesn't count since I started it something like THREE YEARS AGO, but I wrote a lot on it this year, and I can now proudly say that it is officially finished! (Yay for me!)
Star Child (SV: Clark/Lex) Written for the harlequin_sv challenge. And it was a historical romance, to boot!
A Hero All the Same (HP: Draco/Harry) Written for the hd_holidayschallenge and it was a lot of fun for my first HP story!

Viggies:
Love Is Not A Joke (RPS: Michael Rosenbaum/Tom Welling) Written for the Porn Battle on LJ by oxoniensis.
Dirty Laundry (SW: Luke/Mara) Written for a challenge on SWFF.
Constant Cravings (SW: Luke/Mara/Wedge/Iella) A sequel to another story that I'd had lingering on my hard drive forever and which I finally finished up this year!

The Smut:
Um, all my stories are smut, so just look at the above titles and consider them named in this category!

Drabbles I wrote this year:
Breathe (SW: Luke/Mara)
Baby (SW: Luke/Mara, Ben)
Siblings (SW: Luke, Leia)

In the works:
For the Greater Good (SW: Luke/Mara)
It's a Jedi Thing, You Wouldn't Understand (SW: Luke/Mara) I really need to finish this one...
Dancing With Words (SV: Clark/Lois)
Changing Direction (SV: Clark/Lex)
I also have some thoughts about another HP story, but I need to figure out exactly how to do what I want to do!

My favourite fan fic this year:
Wow, hard to say, as I love all my stories. Those of you who recall my rant on Feedback will remember that I believe myself to be a brilliant writer (tongue firmly in cheek here!). But I'd have to say that Whisper Your Weakness is the story that I feel the most passionate about. I've loved it, I've hated it, I've been tempted to toss my entire computer out the window over it, but I do think it's one of the best stories I've ever written and I am quite proud of it. And very happy that it's finally DONE!

My best fan fic this year:
Hmm, depending on how you define 'best', I did take 2nd place in the harlequin_sv challenge with Star Child AND got a vid out of it, so I'd have to say that one probably. Plus, it really was a challenge to write Clark and Lex in an 1870's wild west story.

Most fun writing:
Well, this is NOT Whisper, for sure! That story tortured me! I'd have to say Love Is Not A Joke, because I giggled to myself the whole time at all the practical jokes that Michael was playing on Tom.

Sexiest fic:
I think this one is probably Constant Cravings. It's a foursome! With Luke, Mara, Wedge AND Iella! It just doesn't get any sexier than that.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters:
On this one, I honestly have to say none of the above. I have a pretty specific picture in my head of how I believe all of my favorite characters to be: Luke, Mara, Harry, Draco, Clark and Lex. So I try very hard to write them true to that image I have of them.

Hardest fic to write:
Whisper, without a doubt. I was ready to slash my wrists at several points! It has so much angst in it, that I worried it was becoming too soap opera-ish.

Biggest disappointment:
Again, I don't think I have an answer to this one. I was fairly happy with the way all my stories came out. If there was any disappointment on my part, it's probably that I wish I could have gotten more of my WIPs finished.

Most telling fic:
Probably the fact that I wrote a Real Person Slash story, which tells me that I am WAY too obsessed with Smallville, the actors on it, and the characters they portray!

Wow, that's actually a little more than I'd thought I'd written. It's been a little slow since I started working, as writing time has become more scarce. But I hope to do better in 2008!

SMALLVILLE!

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:35:09 GMT

Oh my gosh, how much am I loving my show right now! I am usually spoiled all to pieces, but I didn't know about a few things this season...

including Grant/Julian and the return of Bizarro, and it was so awesome to sit there and watch and be stunned by what was happening on the screen.

I loved Gemini SO much! Looking back on it now, I should have guessed that Clark wasn't really Clark just from the title of the episode alone, but I'm dense that way, I think. I do remember thinking that Clark was acting a little weird, not quite himself, and then I thought 'well, maybe Tom was just having an off day or something' and then when it was revealed that it was Bizarro instead of Clark, I just thought 'oh, Tom is brilliant!!' He managed to change his perfomance just enough to make me wonder, but it was so subtle that I thought I might have been imagining it.

I had thought that 'Julian Luthor' would turn out to be a clone, but I wasn't sure (knowing how SV's writers have screwed with continuity in the past) so I'm glad to see that turned out to be true. The scene where he realizes what he is and what Lex has done was just awesome. And, omg, what is Lois going to say when/if she finds out about this? And speaking of Lois, she was absolutely AWESOME in this episode. I loved her tapping out 'bomb on you' with the magic marker...utterly ingenious on her part. And the way she confronted Lex so bravely, even though you could see that she was half scared/half worried out of her mind for Chloe. She was just so cool in the whole thing.

I still can't help feeling a little bit sorry for Lex that he would go so far to try and have someone who loved him, even as I was horrified when he shot Adrian as he screamed 'You're not my brother, you're a mistake!" Chilling, really chilling. Even though I know he's done so many horrible things, I still can't help feeling sympathy for him though, and that's part of the reason that I was annoyed when 'Clark' suddenly decided that he was going to work with Lana to bring Lex down. But it makes sense that Bizarro hates Lex because of how Lex tried to kill him.

And I STILL didn't think anything was up with Clark when he said that, even though that is totally unlike Clark (because we all know he really still loves Lex the best!) and so I was shrieking with shock when the Bizarro face was revealed...and then poor real Clark is frozen and trapped in the Fortress! I'm wondering though, if that part alone is Jor-El's consequences for Clark and Bizarro has just taken advantage of Clark's absence...or if Bizarro is the one who imprisoned Clark somehow.

Man, I just can't wait to see what happens in the next episode (and the return of Braniac, YAY!) and it sucks that we have to wait until the end of January. :( It also sucks that this is one of the best SV seasons ever and it's going to get cut short by the writer's strike. I really hope they get that resolved soon, so they can get back to doing what they should be doing...making TV shows for those of us who have no life otherwise, LOL.

Catching Up!

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:52:33 GMT

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I posted on this thing! Life has just been really busy, especially since I started working full-time again. By the time I get home, get Jacob if I have him that day, get homework done, get dinner, get him ready for bed...I'm ready for bed myself! I've fallen asleep on the couch before the ten o'clock news comes on more times than I can count.

I have managed to find a little time for writing, as I'm thisclose to being finished with Whisper Your Weakness, as in I'm working on the epilogue now! I also was able to finish a story for the h_d holidays challenge, and that marks my first ever HP story, so I was quite proud of myself for that.

I had a birthday recently! I turned 41 on the 21st of November, and it wasn't nearly as traumatic as when I turned 40, LOL. Guess I've gotten used to being 'in my forties' now or something.

I had a great Thanksgiving with all my family. In fact, I did most of the cooking! I roasted a turkey, made stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, fudge, and I tried something new...an apple crisp! It went over great, apparently, as everything was gobbled up by my family.

I was stressing for quite a while (after all the stress of Jacob's surgery!) over my state exam for certified medical assistant, which was on October 26th. I was MIA for everything for about two weeks prior to that, trying desperately to cram back in all the info that had leaked out of my brain in the last 18 months. I won't find out if I passed for 12 weeks, though, and that's stressful enough on its own!

And of course, I now have a really awful cold, so I'm hacking and coughing and blowing my nose every five minutes. Here's hoping that goes away quickly.

Anyway, just a bit of catching up, and I'm not even going to say that I'll try to do better about keeping up with this from now on, cause Lord knows it would be a humongous lie!

UPDATES!

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:45:57 GMT

Thanks so much everyone for all your thoughts and prayers in regards to Jacob's surgery. He is doing wonderfully (kids bounce back SO fast, I swear!) and they were able to use the BMP, so he didn't even have to stay overnight in the hospital. He went back to school on the 27th and is doing great.

So again, thank you to everyone who was kindly thinking about us on that day!! {{{BIG hugs to you all}}}

And in other BIG news...

I got a JOB! I am so thrilled and relieved and excited. It's at an allergy place called, coincidentally enough, Allergy Partners. I start on the Tuesday after Labor Day and I can't wait. From everything I've seen, it looks like it's going to be an awesome place to work. Now, if only I could make heads or tails of all this insurance information... Yikes!

But YAY for me, cause I got a job!!

I'm a nervous wreck.

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:27:05 GMT

Okay, it's about 11:20 and I so need to be going to bed...but I just can't because I know I'm not going to be able to sleep.

It was Jacob's weekend at his dad's and so I've been by myself for two days which has given me way too much time to think. His surgery is in the morning and I've been obsessing over it most of the day. Realistically, I know there's not much chance of anything going wrong, but I can't help remembering how I felt when he was only 11 weeks old and I was holding him in my arms and then I had to hand him over to the nurses at the Operating Room door...I started bawling like a baby.

He's my baby still, even though he's ten years old, and if anything were to happen to him tomorrow, I don't think I'd be capable of continuing to function as a human being. I just....I KNOW everything is going to be all right, but I don't KNOW that it will be!!

Gah, I'm not even making sense to myself now.

Just please pray for my booga-boo tomorrow, and pray that I retain my sanity, too.

Oh, and while you're praying, a word or two to God's ear about me getting a JOB wouldn't hurt either!

MEME!

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:34:13 GMT

I've seen this meme going around, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

1. List 5 celebrities you would have sex with without even asking questions.
2. Put all of them in order of your lust for them (1-5, 1 is the hottest).
3. Say which movie/show/thing it was that hooked you.
4. Supply photos for said people.

1. Tom Welling, otherwise known as the REAL reason that I watch Smallville. I was just simply hooked the minute that I saw his beautiful face! Honestly, it would be too embarrassing to tell you how badly I really am obsessed with this man...

2. Jon Bon Jovi. I've been in lust...err, love with him since about 1985. But it was the album These Days that really stole my heart for good. And my god, he's only gotten better looking as he's gotten older!

3. Jensen Ackles, otherwise known as the only reason I watch Supernatural! I came to SV late, so I watched S4 on DVD, and while I liked Jason Teague all right (I thought he was the one guy that Lana actually had a little bit of chemistry with) I absolutely fell in love with Dean Winchester!

4. Hayden Christensen. I'm a SW fan from all the way back in 1977, and I worried about who they'd pick to be a young Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Let's just say, I think they chose very well!

5. Matt Damon. I was fairly meh about Matt...until I saw The Bourne Identity. He ripped my heart out and stomped it into the ground with that role and now I would totally be his love slave.

One week until Jacob's surgery...

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:16:41 GMT

...but right now, I'm kind of excited!

We had our pre-op appointment with the doctor who's going to be doing the operation (an oral surgeon) and he told me about something called bone morphogenic protein. This is a substance that helps the body to create its own bone and cartilage tissue, and Dr. Williams thinks that he might be able to use this instead of taking the bone marrow from Jacob's hip.

If that's the case, this will cut Jacob's recovery time (and his pain) tremendously! If he can use BMP, then Jacob will probably not even have to stay overnight in the hospital, and will only miss a day or two of school instead of a whole week. Plus, it means we won't have to have the limitations on his physical activity for the two weeks that would be required if he has to use the hip marrow. Try telling a hyperactive 10-year-old that he's not allowed to run or jump or play hard for TWO weeks!

The catch is, Dr. Williams won't know if he can use the BMP until the actual surgery when he gets in there and can see what he's dealing with. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that he can use the BMP!

The weirdness continues...

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:59:22 GMT

So, my son has an e-mail account because he loves to get e-mail from family and a couple of his friends. I decided to send him an e-card, because he loves those silly ones where you can interact with them.

Big. Mistake.

I stupidly used my everyday e-mail address to send the thing, and now I'm getting all this spam from the e-card site that says stuff like:

You've received a greeting from a neighbor!

You've received a greeting from a friend!

You've received a greeting from a partner!

Extremely annoying, but I had to laugh when I got this one:

You've received a greeting from a worshipper!

Wow. Did I establish my own religion and church and somehow forgot about it? I'm really glad they're sending me e-cards if that's the case! I'm wondering if I could wrangle some tithes out of this...