what_wings_dare | Who's scruffy-lookin??

[Endor may have been a cause for celebration, an unexpected major victory against the Empire, but Leia knew it was only the start. The real work to take advantage of their current momentum had to start now, as tempting as it was to bask in the afterglow of their victory.

Not that Leia really knew how to let herself bask much at all if there were any time for it. Her presence and input was required at strategy meetings, and there was plenty to plan, from governmental decisions to areas to target for remaining imperial forces to which squadrons were due for leave. All this meant that, unfortunately, Han occasionally wound up as a sounding board for the thoughts racing through her mind between meetings.

The subject today? Which territories to target the Empire in next.]

--Thankfully we have a reliable agent to take charge in that part of the Outer Rim. I can't deny that their methods are risky, [compared to taking on Death Stars in small fighter ships??? Okay Leia] but there's no denying the results Enfys Nest and her group have had there. The locals trust her, as well, which is even more important now. If we're going to form any semblance of a functional government, we'll need that support.

[ For a fleeting moment, right after the Death Star fell, they'd all let themselves feel the victory, maybe all the more strongly because they knew, deep down, that the fight wasn't over. They'd earned a little respite, and they'd taken it, and now they're fighting all the harder to keep it.

Mostly, Han manages to avoid the meetings. Not always. But everyone knows he's better in the air than at a table, so he skates around as many as he can with the excuse of running drills or helping assess new volunteer pilots or just about anything. The difference now is he doesn't even pretend he's thinking of leaving, because he's got a damn good reason to stay.

And that's the other half of what he does-- listen to Leia and try to keep her sane. She's a practical woman in most regards, but sometimes she gets too wrapped up in her work, and Han is pretty sure she could wear herself down to nothing without even noticing.

So he listens, and usually after a while he tries to redirect a little, to wind down. But today she catches him off guard. ]

Enfys Nest, [ he echoes, a little surprised. He hasn't thought of her in years.

It doesn't quite occur to him immediately that it's a little too telling to have heard of her at all. ]

[Han's response causes Leia to pause, raising an eyebrow. While she can acknowledge it's a unique name, and perhaps that's what he's caught up on, she almost expected him to gloss past the name and offer some strategic advice. But that surprise in his voice has her intrigued enough to stop her current train of thought, just to figure out what Han's so caught off guard by.]

I'm not sure where precisely she's from. She's been an important contact for us for years.

[As long as she can remember being involved with the alliance, and perhaps even longer. There were so many smaller, fractured rebel groups fighting before the alliance itself had been formed that it wouldn't have surprised Leia one bit if Enfys had been fighting before it even existed.]

Have you heard of her before?

[He had been around the Outer Rim pretty often, she supposed, so it isn't totally out of the question that he might have heard the name somewhere.]

[ There are plenty of legitimate reasons Han might know about her. Or maybe not exactly legitimate reasons, but totally safe non-personal, non-Rebellion reasons that don't involve him at all except as the gatherer of hearsay. He did spend a lot of time in the Outer Rim, and Enfys got pretty well embroiled with all sorts of people.

So in totally practical and characteristic fashion, Han panics and responds in the absolute wrong way. ]

Why, did she say something?

[ about him. He could imagine she doesn't remember him, but, well. She probably remembers him, under the circumstances. ]

[That's absolutely the wrong way to respond. If he had only heard of Enfys by reputation or through Outer Rim gossip and news, that's not the sort of answer Leia would've expected. It's enough to tell her there's more to him picking out her name than just curiosity.]

Should she have?

[Her tone isn't accusatory, not anything more than interested in whatever his answer might happen to be. Because she does genuinely want to know, ideally without prying for that answer.]

What? No.

[ Nope. Definitely not. So, she didn't say anything, which is overall good.

Realistically, it shouldn't matter; having accepted a commission he's about as all-in with the Rebellion as you can get. He's publicly declared himself to be on their side. And there's Leia-- he's also pretty solidly declared his loyalty to her, which kind of necessitates the Rebellion and the Republic and all the rest.

And means, probably, that she deserves not to have him keeping secrets. And yet, he's really, really reluctant to bring some things up. ]

It sounds like your meeting went well, [ he says innocently. Except it's a terrible job of innocence, honestly. ]

Han.

[It did go well. Or as well as these things can go with all the uncertainty involved and how quickly they need to move now. But now, those thoughts--while not forgotten, exactly--have been abandoned in favor of learning what Han seems reluctant to talk about.

It's not that she's hurt by him not immediately supplying whatever was on his mind this time. It's habit for him, she knows. But that doesn't mean she doesn't want to know, especially when it's something he's all but volunteered on his own already. So much for no prying.]

You're changing the subject.

I'm trying,

[ he says rather grimly, because she's not letting him. Which, he has to admit privately (and would never admit publicly,) is his own fault. Really, it'd be such a nice subject change. He imagines Enfys Nest much be a much more vicious opponent and a much more persuasive ally than ever, and that's a dangerous combination, considering where she started out. ]

Look, I met her. She was practically a kid, it was a long time ago.

[ How much Leia knows about Enfys Nest's exploits is a mystery to him. A lot of people know about it-- not the details, not his involvement, but even now the memory of all that coaxium, that's not dead. Sometimes the older folks trade stories, and he's heard bits and pieces about the early days. The intelligence they bought with that precious cargo. The missions it fueled. If he were a more idealistic man he'd have a sense of pride about it. ]

[The older details, much of what was established and carried out years before she even knew of the Alliance's existence, she doesn't know well. There were many contacts and many missions and disagreements about how the Alliance itself should even function that for many of those contacts, knowing a general picture of what they've done, who they are, and whether they're trustworthy was almost enough.

So while Leia might, if pressed, associate Enfys with obtaining a large amount of coaxium, the details of how that happened may not have ever made it to her ears.]

I didn't know that.

[Well naturally.

Her assumption now isn't that it's connected to anything Rebellion related, but rather related to Han getting into sticky situations in general in the Outer Rim. That doesn't quell her interest, however. She's always interested in finding out more about Han's life before they ever met.]

How did you two meet?

[ fun fact: Han has an excellent sabacc face. You'd expect that, considering what a good card player he has. It's just-- for some reason, it doesn't work on Leia. Ever. At all. He's not sure what's wrong with him, honestly. ]

We did some business,

[ he says, with a shrug that says it's no big deal and an expression that says I have eaten something I regret immensely, which is not a common expression for Han, given that he is basically a human garbage disposal after years of feeding himself on long hauls on the Falcon.

The impression it gives, unfortunately, is that he probably stole something from Enfys Nest that he doesn't want to admit to. ]

[Leia's nice enough to not mention any lack of a serious sabacc face around her. In honesty, she likes that he's that way around her. It's endearing. It's nice to get to see Han in a way that she's not sure many others have.

She might be able to piece together a general idea of what may have happened from that answer, but Leia's still curious enough to try for more than just that.]

Did you try out to join her Cloud-Riders?

[She's 100% sure it's not that, but a bit of light teasing, she hopes, will help him be more willing to share the truth.]

[ He can't even muster up more than faint annoyance at his inability to keep things from her. Love is weird and inconvenient. ]

Yeah, how'd you guess?

[ he deadpans, rolling his eyes a bit. He tries to talk himself into relaxing. He doesn't have a reason not to bring it up. It definitely is just that he doesn't want to admit to early altruism, and it definitely has nothing to do with what happened after. The betrayals. The death. Beckett. Qi'ra.

Nope, it's just about the whole doing a good deed thing.

Han Solo is a mature, emotionally healthy person who doesn't try to repress anything. ]

What do you know about what she did?

[This is building like it's going to be a long story, which she doesn't mind at all. She shifts a bit, scooting a bit so she's sitting more comfortably and a bit closer to Han.

But as for his question, she shakes her head.]

She's assisted the Alliance long before I've been involved. I know what she's been doing more recently, and that she's been involved in the fight before we were even somewhat organized, but I'm not as familiar with her older missions.

[ In spite of his best bad intentions, in spite of how much he doesn't want to talk or even think about some parts of his past, Leia is, as usual, incredibly good at disarming him.

She shifts closer, and he relaxes a little. Only a little.

Well, he might as well get to it. ]

That's how long we're talking. Before the Rebellion was the Rebellion. Rumor is, Enfys Nest stole a massive shipment of coaxium.

[Relaxing, even slightly, is good, in Leia's opinion. She doesn't want Han to be defensive and on edge when sharing things about himself.]

Was that rumor not correct?

[She wants to let him tell his story at his own pace, but it's too difficult to not respond in some way after he begins.]

She's more of a raider than a thief, [ he says with a shrug. These are distinct flavors of criminal activity, the distinction matters. ] Far as most people know she got what she went after, this big shipment on Vandor-1.

[ he falters a little. Tries not to, because it only gets worse from here. ]

No one got it. Whole thing blew, [ he says, lifting a shoulder in a shrug, trying not to think so much about what that cost them. ] Kind of a mess. Except my crew was still on the hook for it.

[She nods, just accepting his insistence on the difference between thief and raider. He knows the details of that world more than she does.

Vandor-1 is a planet she's never been to personally, but she can guess pretty confidently where it is and who it was Enfys--and apparently Han--were trying to steal from. Not exactly the safest sounding operation. Her eyebrows raise at the image of all that coaxium exploding--because that can't have been something small, knowing just how volatile it can be.]

You mean you and Chewie? I'm glad you weren't hurt.

[Because if Han ever had a crew, Chewie is basically the only one she can imagine being part of it.]

[ he nods, slowly. that much, at least, lifts his spirits a little bit, thinking of Chewbacca-- one of few good things that came out of that part of his life. ]

Yeah... A crew we were with, [ he says. Evasive, but maybe they can gloss over that part. ] It was pretty soon after we met, we kinda fell in with it. Anyway, they were in pretty deep... so we couldn't just call it off. Except, you know. That much coaxium in one place...

[ he shrugs. Not a common opportunity, that. ]

[For now, they can gloss over it. If he's in the mood to continue later, she'll ask about it. If not, she'll hold onto it for later. She wants to hear where the rest of this main story leads first.]

Outside of imperial fuel depots, you won't find that much that easily.

[Something she's well aware of, with fuel procurement being vital for the life of the Alliance.]

Right. And I'm good, but... [ not that good. Not with less than a handful of people who barely know and shouldn't trust each other, especially. ]

So we got creative. There's plenty of raw coaxium.... [ well, not plenty, but you know. ] And there's a refinery on Savareen.

[ And transporting that much raw coaxium while under gunfire is borderline suicidal, but that bit goes without saying. ]

[She has an idea where this is going, and she doesn't like it at all. Sure, it's history at this point, but she reserves the right to be concerned anyway.]

Han.

[there are various levels of "what were you even thinking" and "did you realize how dangerous that is" in that one word.]

There's nothing near Savareen!

[Which is to say, just where are you getting raw coaxium from to bring it to Savareen.]

Exactly. Which is why we went to Kessel first.

[ it was crazy, yeah, but even now he's kind of proud of that part. Pulling it off. Thinking of it in the first place.

The next part, the record, she might be able to guess. He's not exactly quiet about the run, he just doesn't volunteer some of the details. ]

[Oh, this part she can definitely guess. She's heard about this far too many times over the years to not be able to guess. Unless Han just enjoys hanging out at Kessel, which she sort of doubts. It's not the greatest of places.]

And it took you only 12 parsecs to go from there to Savareen?

After stealing the coaxium, inciting a revolt, and freeing the Wookiees in the mines, [ he agrees, like it's no big deal. ]

[she knows Han better than to think he’s joking about any of this. As extreme as this one trip sounds, Leia is absolutely sure he’s telling the truth. But it’s still so much that she bites back a smile.]

You never mentioned freeing an entire mine of Wookiees in your stories about the Kessel Run before.

[that part is something she likes a lot more than the whole fastest runtime part.]

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