#32 Drabble List. Also, I don’t anon anything.
No need to anon anything unless you want to! (And thank you for the ask!)
32. “Keep your eyes on me.”
“I’m in love with Han,” Leia said, feeling for a moment likeshe was practicing one of the Old Religions and Luke was a priest. But anycontrition she felt was from the thought that Luke’s feelings could be hurt.She wasn’t sorry, really; she’d never be sorry.
Luke’s smile spread across his face, briefly lifting thecloud that he seemed to have picked up on Bespin. “Finally,” he said, andtouched her hand, looking like that earnest young man who’d burst into her cellagain. “He’s in love with you too, you know,” he added.
“I know,” Leia said, and heard Han echo the words in herhead. She looked up at Luke again. “How long have you known?”
“A while,” he said.
“How—“
That earnest smile came back, Luke’s eyes gaining a twinkle. “I don’t know. You two drive eachother crazy, but when it comes down to it, you always seem so—in sync.”
“Keep your eyes on me,” Han had directed on one of theirearliest missions together, as Leia chased a group of Imperials across acatwalk to distract them from the charges he and Chewie were setting. She had,and at his nod, changed course, leading the Imperials right into the path ofthe blast.
Later, she’d said it back to him as they prepared to swoopdown on a set of guards to break into a data installation.
Before long, they knew one another’s moves and instincts sowell that no words had been necessary; a certain look, and they knew to strike,to hold firm, to make their move. Keepyour eyes on me.
Luke was right. Before and after the mission, they squabbledand raged, but during the mission, that look was all they needed tocommunicate, to know that they had each other’s backs.
They’d given each other countless other kinds of looks inthe six weeks leading up to Bespin—utter frustration, anger, astonishment, tenderness,desire, love, fear. But that look hadresurfaced in the red-gold light of the carbon freezing chamber, as puffs ofgases swirled around them.
There was no need to say it—keep your eyes on me—for Leia could not tear hers away. She wasburning his image into her brain, preserving him far better than the carboniteever could. Reassuring him as he reassured her: I’ll be okay. Trust me. I’ve got you. All those words, unspoken butknown. In sync.
So in sync that as they dragged him from her lips, she knewimmediately the words that needed to go with him, that belonged with him: “Ilove you.”
He sank into the chamber, his eyes still on her, his words confirmingher love was known, his look—that look—asilent promise to come back.
This mission wasn’t over.
