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Festival Of Light - A Place To Fit In
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Six Months After Union

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Callused hands worked nimbly, hour after hour, intent on finishing their
task on time. For weeks now, he had spent most of his free time here,
pouring his heart and emotions into the artworks that he produced.

A small smile crept onto the concentrated face of Luke Skywalker while he
led the delicate chisel over the surface of what was destined to be his
present for his sister. It had taken him a long time to figure out the
perfect gift for her this year, but he was confident that he had had the
right idea. If he let his heart decide, he never erred in these matters.

Once again, the Festival of Light had arrived. How quickly time flew by if
you were busy. Sometimes, the Jedi Master could hardly believe that it had
been such a long time ago that he had left Tatooine behind - such a long
time ago that he had lost one family and found another one.

Back in his childhood, this time of the year had not always been celebrated.
More often than not, Owen Lars would not be in the mood for festivities. And
the sad eyes of his nephew would go unnoticed.

A short flicker of melancholy appeared in the azure eyes of the man, but was
determinedly quenched. It wasn't as if Owen hadn't loved him. No. Luke knew
that the rough farmer had just not been able to show emotions as freely as a
small boy would have liked it. And if the Festival of Light had not been
held in the Lars homestead, it had not been to hurt little Luke Skywalker.

Back then, the boy could not have possibly understood the seriousness that
permeated the house at times. Now, that he knew about how he had come to be
the foster son of Owen and Beru Lars, many things had become clear to him.

But alas, there was no reason to dwell in a bittersweet past if the reality
was so wonderful. The smile on his face widening and taking on a definitely
satisfied touch, Luke put the small hammer and chisel away, took a deep
breath and blew over his finished artwork. Small crystal fragments careened
away, settling onto his worktable, coating it with a white layer. He would
clean up tomorrow - a glance at the chrono next to the door told him that he
was late anyway.

Fortunately, Leia's present had been the last to finish. All other
preparations had been done. Straightening, Luke stretched his stiff
shoulders. Sitting hunched for hours over something like this was quite
tiring, but alone the mere thought of what this day would still bring made
him forget the pain quickly.

While he crossed the room and started rummaging through a storage
compartment worked into the lowest level of one of the shelves, Luke allowed
his excitement to break through.

He loved the Festival of Light. It was his favourite time of the year. For
millennia, it had been celebrated all over the galaxy. What made it so
special was the fact that it was not bound to any special belief. It wasn't
about worshipping any God. It was about bringing those together that you
loved and honouring values that were defined individually.

It was a mere coincidence that peace and love were those most common to be
chosen. Because of this, certain people thought that the Festival of Light
was all about peace and love. But it was actually just about what the people
made it to be about.

Luke had fond memories of the first time he had celebrated this day with his
new family. The idea had come from his sister, though she had not needed any
diplomatic skills to persuade him to make a celebration of this event a firm
ritual in the life of the Solo family and Luke Skywalker.

At that very day, they had all sat together to listen to Leia recount the
history of the festival. His niece and nephews had been far too small to
recall anything of that, but he could repeat every single word that the
alderaanian Princess had spoken.

How more than a thousand millennia ago religious wars had devastated the
galaxy, had disturbed the peace everywhere as everyone fought what they
perceived as holy wars. How some of the most skilled politicians and
diplomats had set to work to create a celebration that would unite every
being in the galaxy, no matter what species or belief. They had wanted to
create one day in the year where nothing mattered but your individuality and
yet, a common celebration existed.

After many debates, they had managed to invent the Festival of Light and
since that very day, it was held every year, in winter. There were no rules,
no rituals to begin with - the original thought had been to make everything
a matter of personal choice except for the fact that it was a galaxy-wide
holiday.

With time, though, certain rituals had outweighed others. There were still
uncountable different versions of Festival of Light rituals, but some were
just accepted by so many beings that they were almost firmly set customs
themselves.

He and his family had chosen one of the most popular ways of celebrating
this day, simply because it had appealed to all of them. And today would be
another one of those occasions where they could be together as a family,
just as everyone else.

And Luke Skywalker was looking forward to it. If it was possible, he did so
even more than any other year before.

"But," he interrupted his own thoughts, frowning at the compartment and it's
wildly mixed contents, "if I don't find that stupid... Ah, there you are."
Relieved, he pulled out a flexile, dark violet box. Months ago, a collection
of historical holo chips had been sent to him in it and he had refrained
from flinging it into the garbage chute, instead storing it for further use.

Grinning, he rose again and returned to his workplace. Sometimes, there was
still a fair deal of the moisture farmer in him. If something had even the
most remote chance of being used again, it just was not thrown away.

Careful and in slow motion, Luke stored the present for his sister in the
box after padding the same graciously. Surveying his assortment of coloured
ribbons and glitter ink pens, he set to work on the final touches.

He had just chosen a silver glitter ink pen when coloured sparks danced over
the mirror just over his work desk. Surprised, he lifted his head and stared
out into the gloomy winter morning.

Snowflakes were dancing in the wind outside, slowly making their way down
the skyscrapers of Coruscant City. Snow. In all the years Luke had lived on
this planet or visited it numerous times to be with his loved ones, it had
never snowed before.

He thought to remember that Leia had once told him that the last time it had
snowed here had been more than 20 years ago. It was, Luke mused, as if even
the weather wanted to mark this year as something special.

Snow on Coruscant was not only a special occurrence because of its rarity.
When millions and millions of crystals of frozen water danced around in the
sky, they met the lights of millions and millions of windows and as many
speeders, sky cars and limousines.

White light was broken in the snowflakes, sending flashes of rainbow colours
all over the sky. It reminded Luke a little bit of the rainbow storms on
Yavin IV, but here on Coruscant the colours were more fleeting and much more
complacent.

You never knew when there would be one of those flashes and the fascination
was thus that you found your eyes wandering towards the windows more often
than usual, hoping to catch the beautiful phenomenon before the flakes
vanished in the crevices and gaps of Coruscant's lower levels.

It was a fitting accent to a year that would mark the beginning of a new era
in galactic history. After decades of intense civil war, the New Republic
and the Empire had signed a peace treaty. The war was over. Officially over.

For Luke, it was as surreal as for most of the others that had fought
against the Empire for practically all their lives. It would take time to
overcome the instinctive suspicion towards anything pro-Imperial, that much
the Jedi Master knew.

But he was determined to make every possible effort on his part to push
prejudices and distrust out of his thoughts when he had to deal with folks
representing the Imperial Remnant. The peace would make both governments
prosper and it would give so many people the possibility to finally settle
down and reap the fruits of times untouched by bloody battles and merciless
scheming.

When he turned his head away from the window to finish what he had set out
to do, Luke's gaze caught the delicate golden ring on one of his fingers -
although it was not adorned with anything special, its simplicity was its
most beautiful attribute.

THIS was the one thing in this troubled year that touched him even more
deeply, on a more personal level, than the settlement of the war that had
dictated his life for twenty years. He had married.

Sometimes, it still felt like a dream to him. For a time that seemed like an
eternity, the Jedi Master had resigned himself to the fact that he would
never find a woman to share his life with. All that time, he had fiercely
tried to persuade himself that the loneliness didn't bother him.
Of course he had been wrong. His resignation had stemmed from one thing -
fear. He had been so tired of being hurt again and again. Of opening his
heart to a woman, just to have it broken, wrung out and tossed back at him
again.

It had taken a very special woman indeed to win his trust and to make him
dare to hope again for what he had wished for all his life. A family of his
own. He had never begrudged his sister her happiness - she deserved every
minute of it. But still, it had hurt to see her, Han and the children
together, longing for something similar and being so certain that it would
never be graced to him.

But it was. To be exact, Mara Jade was what fate had graced him with. He
loved her so much that sometimes it felt like his heart wanted to jump out
of his chest. Perhaps he was behaving in a way too childish for a renowned
war hero and a matured Jedi Master. But it was the first time that he was in
love with a woman that felt so right - that felt like a part of him, like
she had always belonged at his side.

Although they had been married for six months only, already now Luke could
not comprehend how he could have ever lived without the beautiful red-head
at his side. It puzzled him a little and was a source of endless marvelling
on his part, but it was positive marvelling. It filled him with warmth that
he could not explain.

And this very day, he would for the first time spend the Festival of Light
with his sister, his brother-in-law, his niece and nephews.... And his wife.

He was exhilarated about it. It would be so much more complete, so much more
beautiful. And it was a great opportunity for his sister to get closer to
Mara.

Twirling the ribbon he had chosen around his fingers, Luke frowned lightly
for a moment. He would not call the behaviour of his sister hostility. Not
even hesitancy. Yet, there was some kind of wall between the Princess and
his wife and he didn't know why that was so.

Back in summer, when he and Mara had married, everything had been so
perfect. Leia had been happy for him, she had even spent much of her free
time with Mara and seemed so very supportive of everything. Now something
was wrong. Definitely wrong.

It was not a crisis - Force prevent it! - but there was something that
prevented the two women from getting closer to each other. Luke hoped that
this day would clear the way for them to get better acquainted with each
other and to erase those ominous doubts Leia seemed to have.

The blue-eyed Jedi Master hadn't yet talked to his sister about it, because
he felt this was something between his wife and her. It would not be right
to meddle too much. Thus, he had absolutely no idea what it was that bugged
Leia so much. All Luke could do was trust in both Leia and Mara to resolve
whatever was between them with time.

Perhaps, so he had deduced tentatively, Leia just had grown estranged from
Mara a little. With him and the ex-Emperor's Hand being away on their
honeymoon and then introducing reforms in the Jedi Order and Leia tugged
away with politicians to work on the details of the peace treaty, they had
not seen each other as often as they would have liked.

Maybe all the two women needed was some time to get re-acquainted with each
other. After all, it was not as if they had been that close before Luke and
Mara had returned from Nirauan and announced their engagement.

Yes, Luke nodded to himself. The Festival of Light was all about positive
thoughts, so he would heed that concept and not allow unfounded worries to
creep up on him. He would enjoy this day, for the first time feeling WHOLE,
and Mara would, too.

*~~

"I don't believe I'm doing this." Mara Jade-Skywalker murmured, mustering
herself in the full-scale mirror that was worked into the drawers of the
Skywalker bedroom. This was at least the tenth robe she had been trying in
the last hour.

Now, if she were any other woman, this might not have been any reason to be
exasperated, but Mara was usually NOT the kind of girl to ponder her
wardrobe for hours. Most of the time, she didn't care what others thought of
the clothes she wore. Efficiency and practicality were what counted for her.

The only one she dressed up for without grudging thoughts was Luke, her
husband. And that didn't involve much pondering, because Mara Jade could
tell what he liked as sure as a Hutt was greedy.

And yet here she was, thinking hard whether she should wear the dark brown,
satiny blouse or rather go for the burgundy coloured one. Before that, the
decision between a tight fitting blue jeans and a wide, flowing jade skirt
hadn't been any easier. Eventually, the jeans had been chosen. She felt more
comfortable like that when she was going out.

Her female side was most of the time reserved for Luke. Mara watched her
face explode into a broad smile when the name of her beloved occurred in her
thoughts once again. Who would have ever thought that she would ever marry?
And Luke Skywalker, of all people?

Many had waited for her to choose someone like Talon Karrde and most of the
people in this galaxy had been pretty surprised when the marriage of Jedi
Master Luke Skywalker and Master Trader Mara Jade had been announced.

To her utter astonishment, most of Luke's friends had not seemed that
startled by it. Some of them, like Solo for example, had sported a very
troublesome smirk when they had learned, a smirk that gave Mara the feeling
that this Corellian and his buddies could read her better than she liked.

Although it had taken some effort for her to get used to sharing her
emotions so freely, of having someone by her side all the day and of loving
this someone, Mara hadn't regretted her choice a single second since she had
accepted Luke's proposal.

If she was honest to herself, she had been more than touched by the way he
had been treating her - who would have ever thought what a romantic was
hidden underneath the impenetrable calm and serenity of the Jedi Master?

The ex-Emperor's Hand had also been pleasantly surprised by the way Luke's
friends and family had accepted her into their circle of love and
friendship, making it easy for her to fit in.

So, why was it that she was so nervous about today? Of course one reason
could be that she had never celebrated the Festival of Light before. Among
smugglers, it was a seldom thing indeed to celebrate any holiday and under
the Emperor, she had considered things like this petty distractions.

If she was honest, though, Mara looked forward to this. She WANTED to get
used to a family life. Contrary to everything she had thought while she had
been on her own, before Luke, having friends was something beautiful

Unfortunately, that didn't mean she could switch from being the independent
loner to being a social person in a matter of seconds. It was hard to trust
and share emotions as freely as was done in this family and its entourage of
close friends. It was hard to accept the responsibility of trust that was
placed in you.

Constantly, though she never shared that with Luke, Mara was afraid to make
some mistake. Especially when dealing with her husband's sister, Leia Organa
Solo. It was just as good that she had not yet talked with her husband about
this, because, to be truthful, Mara could not put her finger on what was
wrong between her and her sister-in-law.

Leia and her had never been close friends - their relationship had been
dominated by mutual respect. Somehow, the female Jedi Master had always had
the feeling that the former Alderaanian Princess didn't quite know what to
make of her.

Sighing, Mara tossed the burgundy blouse back into her drawer and sank down
onto the bed, her fingers idly trailing the smooth material of the cloth she
had chosen.

She couldn't really blame Leia for her behaviour. After all, she HAD been
the ex-Emperor's Hand and there HAD been a time she had vowed to kill Luke.
But that had been long ago. Mara didn't really think that the current
Chief-of-State still suspected her to plan anything against Luke.

Taking into account how much fun she and the Princess had had immediately
before the wedding and how hilariously happy Leia had been about it all, it
was simply absurd to think that the petite woman had any objections to her
marriage with Luke.

Still, there WERE doubts left. The problem was just that Mara could not
fathom WHAT Leia doubted. Whereas they had treated each other amiably and
open before Luke and she had left for their honeymoon, nowadays, things were
different.

There was some reservation when the two of them were together. Whenever the
deep brown eyes of her sister-in-law rested on her, Mara felt like pinned on
a board and being dissected bit by bit.

It made her uncomfortable - Leia seemed to distrust her, seemed to search
for something in her whenever they were in one room and so far, it was
obvious she hadn't found it.

Or, Mara frowned, had she? Had Leia misinterpreted anything, had she come to
a conclusion about the wife of her brother that made her wish Luke had
married someone else?

If there was one being in this galaxy that was difficult to read for the
ex-Emperor's Hand, then it was Leia Organa Solo. Often, Luke had compared
her and Leia, had told her laughing how much they resembled each other in
certain aspects, whereas they differed so widely in others.

Mara could easily name differences between her and the other woman, but if
anyone had asked her, she couldn't have named a single similarity. Perhaps
it was her stubbornness, but she still was not convinced that she and Leia
had anything in common.

But in the end, that didn't really count, of course. What counted was that
Luke was thrilled about this day and about taking her to spend the evening
with his family. What counted was that Mara felt her mood cool down to
arctic if she thought about spending hours under the scrutinizing gaze of
her sister-in-law. What counted was that she could not bring herself to
disappoint Luke and ruin this evening for him.

Determined, Mara rose from the bed and slipped into the blouse she had
chosen. She didn't doubt for a second that Luke would ditch the Festival of
Light to spend the rest of the day alone with her, here in their apartment.
Unfortunately, she didn't doubt for a second either that he would be
terribly disappointed and sad about it.

Of course he would try to hide it - he still hadn't learned that he could
not hide anything from her. She knew how terribly important this was for
him. She really knew it. Yet, it didn't make it that much easier for her to
go.

While she started brushing her long, red-gold locks out, her gaze fell onto
the small chrono that was built into Luke's nightstand.

Perfect. Not only that she had to expect the frostiest evening since Hoth
was hit by the latest ice age, she would also appear too late to it to top
it all off. Spiffy.

"Skywalker, we have to..." She yelled, veering around and almost bumping into
her husband.

"Hurry, I know." Luke finished her sentence for her, grinning broadly.

Mara felt a smile of her own creep onto her face, trying to cover the fact
that he had actually managed to sneak up on her.

"We're late. And you have three guesses who was the reason for it." She
said, smirking at him and peering over his shoulder at C-3PO. The golden
protocol droid was laden with several packages of different sizes and
colours and nodded in his stiff manner at her.

"Mistress Mara."

"Hello, 3PO." Doing a quick count of the gifts the droid was carrying, Mara
shot an exasperated glance at the Jedi Master. "No wonder I did barely see
you in the last weeks. You did ALL of those yourself?"

Luke grabbed his black jacket and followed her out into the anteroom. He
nodded enthusiastically. "Most of them." Turning to 3PO who stood aside
patiently, he added: "We're doing it as always. You get the presents over to
Han and Leia's through the old entry for the house personal. You have the
codes."

"Of course, Master Luke."

"Excellent. Mara and I will get there in about..." blue eyes darted to a wrist
chronometer, while a dark grey shawl was tugged into place,"... half an hour."

The droid hurried away. Mara perched an eyebrow and shot a surprised gaze in
her love's general direction. He had bent down to rummage for his gloves and
all she could see at the moment was his backside. Not that it was a bad
view, she added to herself, smirking.

"You don't want to tell me we're going by foot, do you? In THAT weather?"
She gestured towards the windows and the whirlwind of snowflakes without
even sparing it a look of her own.

The boyish, handsome face of Luke came back into view, an enthusiastic
little-boy-kind of smile making him seem even younger than usual. "I thought
it would be romantic."

"All it will be is cold, Skywalker."

She saw his face fall for a few seconds at her unexpectedly harsh response
and scolded herself. Mara really hadn't intended to spoil his good mood, nor
had she intended to take her frustration out on him. Before she could open
her mouth to apologize, though, Luke's mimic cleared and his eyes peered
intently at her.

Mara groaned inwardly. That was his
I-know-you-are-miffed-about-something-and-you-don't-want-to-tell-me-but-I'm-
sure-going-to-worm-it-out-of-you look. A look that always worked on her.
What just meant this would result in a talk about Leia, what would let
Luke's excitement evaporate in no time and the day would be spoiled.
Excellent. That was exactly what she had wanted to prevent.

"You know, I wonder who that woman in my bed was, last night, telling me
that a slow walk in combination with me and snowflakes softly dancing around
us would be her idea of romance."

"I meant that in opposition to a picnic alone in a desert with sand
everywhere I don't want it to be." She flatly replied, earning a mere smirk
from her husband.

Luke drew her in for an embrace, then softly laid a shawl around her throat
and tucked it firmly into her jacket.

"What's the problem, Mara?"

She sighed. "Luke, it's nothing, really. Let's just..."

"No." He firmly interrupted her. His gaze rested on her, an expression of
infinite tenderness and love on his face as he focused his deep blue eyes on
her. "This is not nothing." He paused and as she didn't reply, his eyes
flicked down to look on the floor.

"If you want to, I can call Leia and tell her that you're not feeling fine.
We can spend the evening here."

"What?" She gasped in astonishment. Although Mara had expected this kind of
stupid selflessness of the Jedi Master, actually hearing him give up on what
he had been looking forward to for weeks was quite a different thing.

"Mara, I can understand if the Festival of Light doesn't mean anything to
you." He hugged her close a second time, as if in reassurance. "You never
celebrated it and..."

"Luke, it's not about that." There was no way around it, Mara thought. She
had to tell him about all of it now. Luke being Luke, he probably had caught
up on the unease between his sister and his wife, but she doubted he really
worried about it. If Luke Skywalker was worried, he started fretting around
you. And in the last couple of days, he hadn't fretted any.

Her husband fell silent at that, watching her puzzled.

Taking a deep breath, Mara slowly said: "It's because of Leia. I just don't
feel comfortable around her."

Puzzlement was replaced by shock. She gave him no opportunity to gather his
wits about him.

"Luke, I think she really doesn't like me that much. She is always watching
me with that weird expression and I have the feeling she is just waiting for
me to do something, ANYTHING, wrong and then..."

A finger was firmly laid onto her lips and silenced her. Jade green orbs
stared up at a kindly smiling Jedi Master.

"THIS," he intoned softly, "is absolute, complete nonsense."

He saw her impulse to object, and quickly continued. "Don't think I have not
noticed that there is some problem between the two of you. And stop looking
so satisfied now!"

Mara couldn't help but smile at that, folding her arms in front of her
chest. Skywalker had done some thinking, obviously, and she would be graced
with the results of that very process now.

"But it's not nearly as bad as you make it up to be, Mar. Everything Leia
and you need is some time to spend with each other. You were not anywhere
near closely befriended before we married and directly after that, you
barely saw each other. Is it so surprising that you can't deal with each
other as if you knew each other for decades?"

He finally released her, giving her the possibility to speak.

"I know, Luke, but I still feel like..."

"Mara, she likes you."

The ex-Emperor's Hand stopped, mustering the Jedi insecurely. "How do you
want to know that?"

"I know my sister, Mara. Believe me, if Leia doesn't like someone, it looks
different." He nodded, an amused chuckle escaping him at what was obviously
a memory of some past event. "VERY different."
His wife's apprehension wasn't significantly dampened by that information.
Luke caught the signs and decided to change direction.

"You aren't afraid of Leia, are you?"

Immediately, he saw the redhead's gorgeous eyes widen in indignation at the
mere suggestion. Mara knew all too well that he was playing on her pride,
but the bad thing with Luke was that he used to do that so awfully well.

"Of course I'm not." She replied as neutrally as she could manage.

The enthusiastic grin appeared again on Luke's face as he swung an arm
around her shoulders and directed her out of the apartment.

"Fine. Then you just take her to the side and talk to her about it. It's the
Festival of Light. Perfect time for things like that."

"Luke!" she made her hand free of his and glared at him from behind.
Unfortunately, he didn't let himself be fooled by any of it. He knew she
didn't really want to stay at home. She just didn't want to talk to Leia.

"Now, now, Mistress Jade-Skywalker. Isn't whining my domain?" he shot over
his shoulder, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

His wife was acting out of character and that very much. Luke didn't need to
reach out with the Force to tell that she was unnerved about her own
behaviour. The Jedi Master was determined to make this a perfect evening.
And to reach that goal, the problem between his sister and the woman he had
bonded with for life had to be taken care of, no matter of which nature it
would actually turn out to be.

He went on along the walkway, well aware that his wife wasn't yet following.
However, he didn't turn around. The best way for Mara to get back her
determination was to annoy her. And if he was good at something, Luke
smirked at himself, then he was good at this.

Only some moments later, an arm sneaked around his waist and a cheek was
leaned on his shoulder. "I will get back at you for that." Mara's soft voice
whispered into his ear, her breath hot on his skin.

"If you and Leia finally have a talk, then the sacrifice is well worth it."
He answered in hushed tones, readily drawing her as close to himself as
possible.

It was so perfect. The air was filled with speeders and air taxis, but the
noise didn't bother him. The walkway was deserted, he held the woman he
loved in his arms and they slowly went their way, surrounded by snowflakes
that would glitter and sparkle in irregular intervals.

His heart filled with warmth and joy and his first impulse was to laugh out
loud and whirl Mara around. In the end, the Jedi Master contented himself
with hugging her and setting a tender kiss on the crown of her head.

"I love you, Mara."

He felt her smile more than he saw it. Though it was not yet anywhere near
dusk, the clouded sky and the towering buildings made the atmosphere gloomy.

"I love you, too, Luke."

For a while, they went on in silence, until the wing of the Imperial Palace
that was their destination came into view some two hundred meters ahead.

"You really think we will be able to work that out, Leia and I."

Luke slipped out of her embrace and walked halfway around her, so that he
could look directly into her eyes. "I don't doubt it for a second, my love."

Mara allowed herself to sink into his sparkling eyes, into the love,
understanding, joy and hope she could see there and drew strength from his
bristling presence in the Force. She pecked him on the lips, then nodded and
without another word being necessary, they continued their way together.

*~~

"But why can't I go with Uncle Luke and Daddy, mom? I'm already 9 and a half
years old, I can help carrying the..."

With a sigh, Leia Organa Solo turned away from the bags of groceries a droid
had just delivered to the Solo apartment and focused on the small boy
standing in front of her. Her youngest son, Anakin, had his ice-blue eyes
firmly glued to her face and his head tilted slightly to the side. His
stubbornness was as evident as if he had written the word all over his
forehead.

"Anakin, you know exactly why you can't go with your uncle and your father.
You can't leave all the work here at home to your siblings."

The small boy pouted. "They don't let me do much anyway."

Leia smiled: "And this, my precious, is the same argument as every year and
as usual, it won't work. When your father and your uncle are gone, you will
help Jacen and Jaina to get the Festival decorations into the living room."

"But..."

"NO but. You will have your uncle with you for the rest of the day. And I'm
sure if you ask him nicely, he will help with decorating."

The smooth face of the child lighted up at that: "You think so?"

The former Princess of Alderaan grinned: "I'm absolutely sure, dear. And now
go finish your room. It won't be long until Luke will be here."

"Will Aunt Mara come, too?" The excited voice belonged to 11-year-old Jaina
Solo who had just joined her mother and younger brother in the kitchen to
fetch herself a bottle of R'alla mineral water.

As every year, the three children had been commanded to clean their rooms -
whereas the rooms of Han Solo's and Leia Organa Solo's Jedi kids generally
needed cleaning practically all of the time, on that particular day of the
year it was not without second thoughts that Jaina, Jacen and Anakin were
told to tidy them up.

The excitement of having the whole family together and getting presents on
top of that usually made the children a small natural disaster to handle,
and Leia was grateful for every little moment she had them off her hands.

And that went especially for this year. If there had ever been a Festival of
Light that Leia had wanted to be perfect, then it was this one. And without
knowing it, her young daughter had reminded Leia of the exact reason of that
with her innocent enough question.

"Of course." The Chief-of-State answered without pause, carefully shielding
her mixed feelings about that fact from her daughter. Jaina adored Mara -
the ex-Emperor's Hand had made a very profound impression on her from the
very first moment on they had met and the child didn't let pass even the
smallest opportunity to spend time with her aunt.

Giving a whoop of exhilaration, Jaina left the kitchen in a dead-run to
inform her twin brother about that fact. Anakin regarded his mother for a
moment with this calm, far too serious expression of his, leaving Leia once
again with the feeling that her small, precious youngest could see much more
of what was going on in her head than the other way around.

But gratefully, the child refrained from inquiring about the odd twirl of
Force emotions he had felt coming from his mother. Giving a grin, he turned
on his heels and made his way back to his room.

Leia gave another sigh and turned back to the groceries on the kitchen
counter. While she unpacked them and checked whether everything she had
ordered had been delivered and that in sufficient quantities, she gave her
thoughts some time to wander and pinpoint the problem she had with this
particular Festival of Light.

This year had been packed with strange things - things that were to the most
part very wonderful and in many ways, Leia was grateful for them. But at the
same time, they were unsettling, too.

It was not so much the truce with the Imperial Remnant that overshadowed
Leia's joy at this particular day. It was true, she had never really trusted
the Imperials before and it would be hard for her to start with it now, but
it would not have been the first time for Leia to have to change her point
of view on certain things. As a politician, she was adapted to it. As she
was adapted to dealing with people she couldn't trust. So, either way, the
Imperials wouldn't really pose a big problem to her.

What irritated her far more was the marriage of her brother. And THIS had to
be the absurdity of absurdities. For years the Alderaanian beauty had tried
to help her brother find a woman to share his life with. Countless
diplomat's daughters, Princesses, Duchesses and young Senators had she
manoeuvred past him, hoping that with one, something like love or affection
would sparkle. Every time, she had been disappointed.

She had so hoped for Luke's loneliness to end and now that it had, she
should have been happy for him by all means. A frown worked its way onto her
beautiful face while she stored fruits, meat and wine in their proper
places.

Of course she WAS happy for him. But then again, she was cautious, too. When
he and Mara Jade had returned from Nirauan and announced their engagement,
caution had been the last thing on her mind. She had felt Luke's presence
bristle and buzz with uncontained happiness and hilarity and it had been
pretty much infectious.

Aside from that, she had spent a fun time with her new sister-in-law
directly before the wedding and had got along perfectly well with the
redhead. And although Mara had been in the service of Emperor Palpatine
himself once and was a trained assassin, Leia didn't really hold any qualms
against her.

The problem with it all was that Mara and Luke had been pretty busy since
their wedding. First they had spent their honeymoon far away from reporters
and prying eyes - on a planet not even Leia knew the coordinates of. It had
been a wedding gift of Han's, and all her charms hadn't managed to get it
out of him.

Then Luke had returned to Yavin IV, with Mara, to set in motion some
extensive and basic changes on the way the Academy would run from now on.
With a wife and peace in the galaxy, the Jedi Master had decided to cherish
the opportunity and bring about some of the improvements he had been
thinking about already for a longer time.

All in all, since the festivities, Leia had not seen Mara, let alone Luke
and Mara together. In other words, she had had much time to think while her
presence had not been swept away by Luke's boundless love for the fiery
beauty.

She didn't dislike Mara. She really didn't. But she also hadn't disliked
Callista and that was the problem Leia was stumbling over again and again
when her heart took her down those paths of doubt and worry for her beloved
brother.

Although her reason told her that it was nonsense and her husband had
berated her numerous times of making all of this so hard on herself, doubts
about Mara Jade's intentions and feelings had spurned in Leia's heart and
had found a firm place there.

Han would never understand how much it had hurt her to see Luke lonely,
heart-broken and resigned to a solitary life after Callista had left him so
suddenly. She couldn't bear the thought that this could happen to her twin
again.

And thus, this evening saw Leia Organa Solo with two objectives.

To make this the perfect festivity and show Mara Jade which kind of family
she had married into and what she could be a part of if she just wanted to.

To make sure that the Master Trader's feelings for Luke were sincere and
that the Jedi Master's sister could trust the other woman with her brother's
heart. Some would have entitled Leia overprotective - her husband surely
did. But all who did couldn't imagine how close she felt to Luke and how
terrible the thought was for her to have to witness him be hurt again. She
wanted nothing more than Luke being happy and she had to know whether Mara
Jade could be the woman to make him happy.

It was as simple as that, really. Leia didn't see a reason why that
particular little issue should ruin this evening and so she was determined
to clear this question up once and for all on this very day, despite of all
the arguments Han had brought before her to forget it and push it to some
other day.

Giving a determined nod to herself, the former Princess flung the now empty
grocery bags into the garbage chute, turned and bumped straight into a tall,
warm mass of Corellian.

Han Solo peered down at her, one eyebrow cocked. She didn't need more than
that to know that he had been watching at least since Anakin had left the
kitchen. And though he didn't have the Force, he had this eerie ability to
know what she was thinking - much as Anakin had, though fortunately not
always quite as accurate.

"Battle plan all set?" He inquired, only a slight tone of misgiving in his
voice.

However, his wife wasn't at all in the mood to be argued with.

"No matter how much you go on annoying me, Han, I'm going to talk to her
today. I just have to know." She squeezed past him, took a bottle out of the
refrigerator and poured herself some sweetberry juice.

Han's hazel eyes still rested on her with this sparkle of disagreement in
them and his voice mirrored that emotion perfectly: "I think you should
trust Luke's feelings on the matter, Leia."

A pointed look met the gaze of the former pirate: "I did so with Callista.
You saw what it got him into."

There was a pause and for a short moment, the Chief-of-State thought she had
persuaded Han of the sense of what she was going to do, but when he started
speaking again, she almost took a step back at the plain annoyance in his
voice.

"I wish you would stop acting like Luke was a little boy."

His wife gaped at him: "What?"

"You're not responsible for his choices, Leia. If he does a wrong choice,
it's HIS responsibility. You can't take that off his shoulders. And you
should not want to do that, because you can't learn without mistakes.
They're painful, but they're necessary."

"But Luke has already..."

Now it was Han's turn to sigh: "I know. Believe me, I know what you mean.
Luke doesn't deserve more pain, I totally agree with you about that. But
unlike you, my dear, I don't believe Mara is going to hurt him. She is
nothing like Callista. And even if she were, it is not your place to judge
this."

The Corellian watched his wife intently, watched the emotions wrestling on
that delicate face he loved so much and he hoped that she would see what he
meant and abandon all those destructive emotions that she had harboured in
the last months.

He didn't really blame her for them... yet that didn't mean that he thought
they were justified or served any purpose other than disturbing what should
be a happy time for all of them.

Gradually, all the self-secure bearing and self-reproach fell from her, but
the determination stayed even as she merged into his embrace.

"I just have to be sure, Han. I just have to be sure."

He didn't respond, just held her close to himself. He had tried his best.
But if her mind was set on this talk with Mara, then he had to accept it.
And just do everything possible to prevent the whole thing from escalating.

Before he could think further about this, though, the door chime sounded.

*~~

The happiness that had been buzzing in his heart already all day reached its
peak as Luke entered the antechamber of his sister's apartment. The familiar
smell and atmosphere always served to calm his nerves if he was agitated,
but on this very day, he just felt the agitation in himself rise.

Before he had had a chance to even do so much as open his mouth to announce
their presence - he had the entry code, of course, but he kept using the
door chime to sort of warn his sister and his brother-in-law if he was
coming over - three bundles assaulted him, shouting their delight as they
jumped into his arms and almost tackled him onto the ground with their
combined weight.

"Uncle Luke, I just have to show you what I did for you."

"Uncle Luke, what did you get me for the Festival? Can't you give it to me
now?"

"Uncle Luke, are you going to play my new game with me after dinner?"

Simultaneously, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin yelled these queries at the top of
their lungs, hugging their uncle and battling for the better place in his
embrace. Luke pressed them close to himself, drinking in the swirling
currents of their Force presences.

He loved his niece and nephews dearly and rejoiced being together with them
whenever he could. And the way they reciprocated his feelings of affection
filled him with so much warmth and pride that he couldn't help but smile
almost continuously whenever he was with them in one room. In a way, he
almost thought of them as his very own children.

Knowing fully well that they didn't really expect an answer just yet, he
whirled them around a few times, hugged them close, then put them back onto
the floor.

He had just opened his mouth to reply when his sister's voice interrupted
the giggles and the laughter of the children.
"You all know full well the plan of the day, so let your uncle be. You will
have him all for yourself soon enough."

Giving Luke a last hug, the three of them chimed an enthusiastic "Hi, Aunt
Mara!!" and went on to beleaguer the redhead, making the way free for their
mother.

The Jedi Master rose to his feet and enfolded the petite woman in his
embrace, lifting her off the floor without much effort. The familiar scent
of her perfume filled his nostrils and he looked delightedly down at her
beaming features. It was good to be home, he surmised happily, extending his
Force senses and welcoming Leia's presence within his own.

Her long, dark brown hair cascaded down his shoulders, almost reaching his
knees as she pecked his cheeks. She wore the silkily shining mass open,
except for two braids that began at her temples and united at the back of
her head, hanging in a single one down the full length of her hair.

She was still as beautiful as she had always been and in moments like this,
when they could be together without any crisis or problem weighing heavily
upon them, his love for her could spill out freely over their bond and
mingle with her feelings for him.

"I'm so happy you're here, Luke."

He smiled broadly as he looked into her big eyes and softly kissed her on
the tip of her nose. "Me, too, Leia. Me, too."

Gently setting her down, he grinned good-naturedly at Han who had joined
them in the attic. Leia quickly brought her burgundy gown back in order. It
was flowing widely around her ankles, but clung more closely to her upper
body, being held together by a series of dark brown buttons and an intricate
golden belt.

"Hey, kid. You're ready to go?"

"Always." Luke smiled, noting his sister going over to his wife. However,
his attention was soon held once again by his brother-in-law.

"We're going to take a try at Retsin Plaza first." Han explained while he
slipped into his parka, shawl and gloves. "Wedge called this morning and
gave me a tirade how he didn't get a bush over at Sartra Chapel. Myri and
Syal have been driving him crazy because of it."

Luke had to chuckle at the absolutely not concealed mischief in Han's voice.
He had to admit that the thought of Rogue Squadron Commander and New
Republic General Wedge Antilles being beleaguered by his two very headstrong
daughters was a rather amusing one.

Quickly, the two of them were set to go and about to leave the apartment
again when the Jedi Master's gaze caught the one of his wife. Of course Mara
had known that he would leave with Han to get the most important part of a
Festival of Light evening, so he didn't expect her to be surprised. However,
she didn't look really thrilled either.

"Are you two going to survive without us for a while with those three
whirlwinds around?" He smirked, hoping to up the mood of his wife and sister
a little, who both looked decidedly more serious than only seconds before.
Jacen, Jaina and Anakin had gone back to their rooms, but their lively
voices echoed through the whole apartment.

His sister turned her head to look at him again, her face immediately
softening. "Of course. I could need Mara's help with dinner. What do you
say, Mara?"

Did Luke imagine it or was there really some sort of feint glimmer in Leia's
eyes, a glimmer that he didn't really like being there this evening? He
couldn't say for sure and as Mara gave a serious nod, attempting a hardly
convincing smile, he could hardly say anything against it. Battling down his
growing unease, he let himself be dragged out of the suite by his
brother-in-law.

*~~

Only when they had stepped in the lift tube that would take them thirty
levels upward to the personal hangar of the Chief-of-State and the doors had
closed, Han's jovial smile fell a little. The Corellian had well noted his
younger brother-in-law's doubtful expression and could imagine all too well
what had dampened Luke's mood a little.

Pounding him on the back with friendly measured force, Han tried a grin:
"Don't worry about them, Luke. It's going to be all right."

For a moment, the blue eyes of the younger man widened, then narrowed on his
friend: "You did notice it, too, then?"

"What? That Leia is on full-attack mode and that Mara has been obviously
feeling as comfortable as if she was chained to a Hutt? If you mean that..."
the Corellian nodded, "then, yeah, I noticed it."

Han had hoped that his exaggeration and light tone would ease the tension in
the Jedi Master, but as he watched his expression change to something
bordering close to horror, he made a face and reconsidered. Obviously, this
had not worked out as he had intended.

"You think it's that bad?" Luke's voice was matching his mimic dead-on and
for a moment, the former space pirate feared his brother-in-law would
reverse the lift tube's direction to run straight back to the apartment and
get his wife as far away from his sister as possible.

The older man rolled his eyes: "Relax, kid. It's not THAT bad."

"But bad enough?" Luke wasn't about to let him off the hook, as it seemed,
so Han decided that he could as well tell him the truth and get over with
it.

"Well, Leia is determined to have a talk with Mara."

The lift held and opened. Both men exited into the wide hangar, greeting the
guards that were stationed at the entry with a curt nod and walking past the
Millenium Falcon to a small speeder parked in the shadows.

The moment they rounded one of the YT-1300 freighter's landing struts,
though, they stopped and Luke turned serious.

"What kind of talk?"

Han sighed: "The serious kind of talk."

The former farmboy from Tatooine frowned, obviously still insecure what
exactly that meant and more than a little worried by the graveness in his
friend's voice. "About what, then?"

"Kid, I don't know whether we should get involved in this. You know, it's
between Leia and Mara and I'm sure that.."

"Han, don't give me that talk. If you were sure that everything would go all
right, you'd have told me about it the second we left the suite."

"Ah, Junior, you don't..."

"Han!" Luke's voice had taken on a distinctly warning quality and the
Corellian decided to relent.

"Okay, okay. But you won't like it."

The Jedi's face was serious as he focused on Han: "Try me."

For a long moment, hazel eyes met blue ones and as the determination didn't
leave the azure depths, Han just blurted it out: "Leia has been comparing
your relationship with Mara to the one you had with Callista and now she has
this stupid idea that she has to make sure Mara's intentions towards you are
sincere and true."

Luke had paled visibly at these words and only a second later his gaze
zeroed in on the older man with reproach too evident in it.

Han held up his hands in a defensive posture and took a step back: "Don't
look at me like this. You know that I know that this is complete nonsense
and believe me, I've been trying EVERYTHING to talk her out of it. I've done
my best. For weeks, in fact. But you know your sister - if she has set her
mind onto something..." he trailed off, leaving the sentence open in the room.

Luke's eyes softened shortly and he nodded, showing Han that he didn't blame
him, then sobered again: "For weeks, hu? This is not some mood of Leia,
then."

His brother-in-law shook his head: "I'm afraid not."

"Wonderful. Mara is going to explode. She can't stand that kind of
interrogation."

"You know, I wouldn't call it an interrogation...."

The farmboy-turned-Alliance hero silenced his best friend with a pointed
glare.

Han scrunched up his face: "Well, okay, so perhaps it IS an interrogation."

Seeing the dark expression on the younger man's face and the slight signs of
beginning anger, the Corellian felt compelled to defend his wife's actions,
even if he didn't particularly agree with them.

He just knew that he didn't need THOSE two to get angry at each other today,
too. That would be more than his sensitive nervous costume could cope with.

"Kid, see, Leia isn't doing this to hurt you. She just wants to make sure
you're happy and that the whole Callista episode won't repeat itself."

Luke cocked an eyebrow: "By getting my wife into a frenzy? Knowing Mara, she
will blame ME for everything."

"Ah, Luke..."

"It's okay, Han." Luke shook his head, wonderment replacing his annoyance.
"I know that Leia doesn't mean ill to anyone. It's just that the way my
sister uses to do this kind of thing is exactly the way my wife can't stand
at all. And Mara is nothing like Callista."

The Corellian snorted: "That is EXACTLY what I've been telling Leia, but she
insists that she has to know for sure. Whatever that means."

For a while, they were quiet, until Luke finally dropped his rigid stance.
"So, what do you think, Han? Is this going to end in a catastrophe or is my
sister going to be diplomatic about it all?" The light question was a flimsy
disguise for the seriousness of Luke's inquiry and Han realised that all too
clearly.

"If it reassures you, Luke, Leia has sworn to me that she wants this evening
to be perfect. She won't start a dispute or an all-out fight with Mara. She
would not do this to us all. Especially not to you and the children."

The azure orbs of his best friend rested for a long time on Han's face, then
Luke smiled: "I know. And, actually, I don't feel any bad omen in the Force.
I guess we just have to trust those two to not bite each other's head off."

"Yeah."

Together, they resumed their walk towards the speeder. When they had crossed
a good part of the distance, Luke turned halfway to Han, piercing him with a
challenging gaze: "So, do I drive or you? We really don't need another
argument with a traffic drone."

"You are not seriously expecting me to let YOU drive MY speeder, are you?"

Luke grinned: "Well, Chewie told me you have tuned it up a little - an
illegal little, actually, and you know, it's been a long time since I
drove..."

"No way."

The younger man stared at him dumbfounded: "What is the problem?"

"Last time I let you drive my speeder, you burned out the starboard
motivator, remember?"
"Of course I remember. I also remember you sitting next to me and shouting
something like 'We can get him, we can get him. Calrissian isn't going to
win that one.'"

"Er..... if you put it THAT way...."

Luke smiled satisfied and slipped behind the wheel.

"Retsin Plaza it is, then. You can drive back home. That's when we can take
it slow."

Han shot him an indignant glare: "Slow? SLOW?"

"Well, you know, we will have the bush by then, so..."

"Save it, Skywalker. The winner is going to clean the dishes after dinner."

The Jedi Master grinned, reminding Han a lot of the young boy he had first
met on Tatooine all those years ago. Pushing the thrusters hard, Luke let
the speeder shoot out of the hangar in a quick start before the Corellian
even had the time to buckle himself in.

*~~

Superfluous and insecure. That was how Mara felt - and Mara Jade didn't like
feeling like this. On their way to his sister's home, Luke had indeed
managed to quench his wife's doubts and worries in this unique farmboy way
that only he could pull off on her.

But the moment the couple had stepped into the suite of the current
Chief-of-State of the New Republic, all the misgivings the redheaded Jedi
Master had held in regards to this day had come back full force, giving her
a hard time to not scowl openly.

She could only stand back as her husband was assaulted by his niece and
nephews. The ex-Emperor's Hand couldn't claim that she had had much
experience with children in her life, but even given that fact, she was
somewhat sure that the amount of noise those three could create was
exceptional for human beings their age.

But as much as the experienced Master Trader and smuggler tried to, she
couldn't pretend that she didn't like these three energy bundles. And seeing
Luke's face light up in happiness as intense and profound as the one that
shone out of the three kids' eyes when he scooped them up and hugged them,
let himself be hugged, she had to admit that this view filled her with an
immense joy.

Without any conscious effort on her part, a smile wormed its way back on the
beautiful woman's face as she took in the scene in front of her. Jaina,
Jacen and Anakin were shouting at the top of their lungs, all of them trying
to get their uncle's attention first. Obviously, they adored Luke and that
in turn made the Jedi Master's wife proud.

In those children, she could see her own unconditional love for the former
farmboy from Tatooine and also her admiration. Of course she would rather
kiss a Wookiee than ever admit to Luke aloud that she admired him, but deep
in her heart, in those places that she kept even from him, Mara Jade knew
that there was no being in this galaxy she held more respect and adoration
for than for Luke Skywalker and everything he stood for and embodied.

She had almost been able to forget all the anxiousness that had driven her
to spend more than an hour in front of the mirror when the petite figure of
Leia Organa Solo glided into the attic, cool, brown eyes resting for a
moment on her, then filling with warmth and tenderness as they changed
direction and found the sandy-haired man crouching on the floor.

Jacen, Jaina and Anakin didn't need more than a gently spoken sentence to
clear the space for their mother and used the opportunity to catch their
aunt alone for themselves. For the next few moments, Mara could do not much
more than hugging, letting herself be hugged and listen to elaborate tales
about the latest endeavours of the Solo kids.

When they finally decided that they had to finish cleaning their rooms to be
ready for anything as soon as their uncle and father would return, Mara rose
from her crouching position just at the right time to see Luke kiss his
sister on the tip of her nose and letting her down from her elevated vantage
point of his embrace.

Her husband's facial expression hadn't changed at all. The same amount of
tenderness and love that he had emitted when his niece and nephews had
occupied his arms was present on his face while his sister kept his
attention and his eyes were glued on her.

Mara felt the urge to snarl, but caught herself. She knew how much Luke
loved his sister, how much she was a part of him and the former Emperor's
Hand was not a jealous person by nature.

However, she didn't like to be treated like some sort of bystander or
unimportant attendee and she felt that this was exactly what the former
Princess was doing. When the brown, intelligent orbs rested once again on
her, there was no trace of the infinite love that inhabited them when Leia
had looked at her brother.

Mara had to give it to her that there was no open hostility either, but
there certainly was something that the Master Trader could only describe as
cautiousness. The well-known feeling of being seized up and judged like a
Ronto on a cattle market on Tatooine settled back into her gut and the smile
froze on her features.

She knew Luke would leave with Han to get this bush thing that seemed to be
so important for a Festival of Light celebration. With the kids off in their
rooms, that would leave her and Leia alone. And she didn't know whether that
was a good idea.

Luke's azure eyes showed a hint of worry and who knew what he would have
done if Han hadn't dragged him out of the suite determinedly. Probably
guessing that someone had caught up on the frosty atmosphere and would have
interfered in a very inappropriate way if he had stayed where he had been.

There was no question for Mara that Leia asking her to help out with dinner
was simply a pretence for whatever the Princess planned and the moment the
men had left the apartment, Luke being soothed a little by Mara's agreement
to his sister's plea, she decided to stop pretending and get right to the
point.

"What now?" She asked, not bothering to conceal her suspicion in false
warmth in her voice. She didn't have a thing against Leia, but she didn't
like to be treated that way and she wanted this to be known.

The Alderaanian beauty smiled, as if she had expected some reaction along
those lines.

"Actually, Mara, I thought you could really help me out with dinner. Cooking
for seven persons is not that easy. Follow me."

Still fairly suspicious, the redhead followed the smaller woman through a
couple of rooms until they reached the large and fairly well equipped
kitchen of the Solo household. Luke's and Mara's own kitchen was not even
half of the size of this room. They hardly needed more and often they'd eat
in some of the Coruscant restaurants anyway.

With three children and a Corellian, she supposed Leia was in need of a
little more space to manoeuvre.

"I'm not much of a cook." The ex-Emperor's Hand stated truthfully, relaxing
a little as she noted mounds of groceries and some kitchen devices standing
at the ready.

To her utter surprise, Leia chuckled and grinned at her conspiratorially:
"Me neither. But that's something I will get done. Han and Luke still think
I choose the meals according to their preferences. In fact, I just look for
what is prepared the easiest way."

Mara couldn't help but grin back at her sister-in-law. For a while, she had
thought Leia would be the perfect housewife for her little family and
somehow, that thought had unsettled her. She had had severe problems to
imagine the proud Princess, a former freedom fighter and fledgling Jedi,
standing behind the hearth cooking for her husband.

For a time, she had even been afraid that Luke would expect her to do
something similar in his desire to have a family of his own - he was
old-fashioned if it came to that. Probably because of his rather
conservative upbringing on Tatooine.

Fortunately, he had never shown the slightest tendencies to demand anything
remotely like that of her. It was better for her nervous costume and
definitely better for his health.

"So, what is served this evening?" She queried, curiously surveying the
goods arrayed. Perhaps, just perhaps, she had misjudged the situation and
Leia was not seeking any dispute.

"Narmellian fruit fondue and attavi steaks." The Princess informed her and
Mara whistled in praise. That was one bit of a delicate menu, though the
petite woman had definitely chosen well in regards to preparing time and
effort.

Leia smiled at her, bringing some baskets over from the counter onto the
table. Now Mara could see that they were all filled with various, fresh
fruits.

"Luke loves Narmellian fruit fondue. It's his favourite." The Jedi Master's
sister informed her while gesturing for Mara to sit down at the kitchen
table.

Whether deliberately or not, though, she had just opened up battle for Mara
again. "I didn't know that." The ex-Emperor's Hand said, trying her best to
keep the annoyance and the frustration out of her voice. She felt like Leia
had carefully manoeuvred her into a trap and she had been as dumb as to run
right into it, head-first at that.

A pointed look from Leia told her everything she had to know. Laying down a
couple of knifes and spoons onto the table and bringing over some more
baskets, the Princess did her best to keep her voice neutral.

"It is really no wonder, Mara. I mean, it's not as if you have much of a
history together."

And there it was, the redheaded Jedi thought. That was the attack. On the
plain level of adversary and challenged person, she had to give credit to
the Princess. She lived up to her reputation of genius diplomat, all right.

But then again, Mara was not a helpless, little girl either.

"Intensity can make up for long years of slow approach, you know." She
replied, smiling sweetly and starting to peel the skin off thumb nail big,
rich yellow Hcisk-apples, a delicacy from the planet Beldorion. She had not
much idea of cooking, but enough to know that Hcisk-apples were absolutely
inedible if not peeled and steamed for a short time later on.

Leia smiled thinly to herself, well in the process of arraying dark violet
glis berries on a tablet for further preparation.

"But it could sweep you away unaware of the finer details." She countered,
dark brown eyes resting firmly on her sister-in-law's face, her delicate
hands doing their work all on their own.

"They may not matter in the overall picture if everything fits as it
should." Mara muttered, thinking to know exactly where the other was headed
and not liking it a bit. Unwilling to meet the Princess's eyes, lest she'd
see the anger glittering in her own, jade ones, she put the first hand full
of peeled hcisk-apples in the empty bowl next to her and proceeded with her
task.

In a way, she was grateful that the Princess had chosen to discuss whatever
she had wished to discuss while they were both having their hands occupied.
That way, some tension and dangerous energy was put to use somewhere else,
in a more constructive way.

"Yet there is much that fails because of details even if it looks perfect on
the outside." The voice of the Chief-of-State was thoughtful, levelled and
almost too carefree for a discussion of this obvious seriousness and it
ticked Mara off.

She was perfectly capable of playing this kind of hide-and-seek all evening,
but she frankly didn't want to. Luke was looking forward to a peaceful,
perfect day and so was she, if she was honest to herself.

"I am aware how much you must enjoy games of this sort, after all you're a
politician," Mara began, almost immediately regretting the slight amount of
venom she had put into the last word, but being far too proud to gentle it
out with more tenderness in the next one, "but I prefer blunt approach,
Leia."

For an indefinite, breathless moment, blazing green met serious, darkened
brown and neither of them said a word, until Leia smiled again thinly and
nodded. "Very well. You have to see Mara, it is not that I don't like you or
do not respect you. I hope you understand this."

The obvious honesty in the other's words calmed Mara's smouldering anger
down a little. But just a little. She didn't like to have to feel like she
had to give rapports and salutes to her sister-in-law, not even if they were
just figuratively expected.

She nodded curtly and Leia continued only after a slight pause. The sweet
scent of the fruits filled the kitchen and seemed to be a grotesque opposite
to the general mood of the two women that were still busy preparing dinner.

"You don't approve of Luke's choice to marry me." Mara finally intoned,
coolly, as if she was talking about stock markets with some client.

To her surprise, Leia shook her head. "No. No, it's not that. It feels
right. The two of you feel right."

"But?"

Leia paused again, a short pain flickering over her beautiful face, a pain
Mara could not place. What could it mean, she wondered?

Of course she knew as much of Luke's and Leia's relationship as Han did or
Wedge.... It was no secret to her that Luke had once been in love with his
sister, before he had been told that they were related by blood.

It had never bothered her and in fact she had been sorry in a sense that
this was another thing that had robbed Luke of some of his innocence -
luckily, his pure heart had guarded much of it.

She knew, too, that Luke had welcome Leia's marriage to Han and that there
hadn't been any jealousy from his part involved. However, she knew Leia
Organa Solo not nearly as well as she knew her husband. Could it be that
Leia was jealous?

Mara had never bothered herself with human relations before, she had never
been in a family where ties like this existed and embodied possible problems
and if she faced simple jealousy, then she would be thoroughly at a loss as
to what she could do against it.

"But there are doubts and worries that I cannot quench and that I have to
get rid of. I DON'T want to be a thorn in your side and I don't want to
spoil your marriage. I just have to be SURE, you know."

The ex-Emperor's Hand couldn't reply much to this. In fact, she didn't even
understand what the Princess was talking about. With a reasonable amount of
relief she realised that it was not jealousy that pushed Leia to this kind
of action. Yet, not knowing what it was that lay at the basis of this
ridiculous situation was not much more soothing than knowing it and being
helpless.

She decided to let Leia simply continue talking. And that was what her
sister-in-law did.

"You don't know much of Luke."

Although there was no bite to these words that she could detect, they hit
Mara like a needle right to her heart and she had to bite her tongue to keep
from meeting this statement with an insult.

Counting to ten slowly, she forced herself to remain calm: "I think I know
him better than you realise."

Leia's head snapped higher: "You think so, yes? Perhaps you feel like this.
But tell me, Mara, how well can you know someone after six months?"

"We know each other for much longer, Leia, and you're aware of that."

Brown eyes narrowed: "You didn't do exactly much to come to know him during
this time. In fact, I had the impression you were trying to avoid him. If
you were in my place, Mara, wouldn't you be suspicious, too?"

Mara gaped at her openly, understanding finally dawning on her. This was not
about some childish jealousy. This was not even haughtiness of a Princess
that thought a former assassin and smuggler was not good enough for her
brother.

This was raw worry and a questioning of Mara's very basic intentions towards
Luke. And it made it much clearer while Leia had been that reserved all of
the time.

She nodded slowly: "I guess I would be."

Leia paused, surprise registering on her features for a moment, then the
carefully maintained indifference settled back. "I'm glad you understand
this."

"I'm NOT intending to hurt Luke, Leia. Never."

Sensual lips were pressed together as the Princess pushed the tray with the
berries aside and proceeded to the next basket of fruits. "I have heard THAT
before."

It made click fully now and Mara's eyes widened. "This is about Callista,
isn't it? You're comparing me to Callista!" Before she could get a reign of
her feelings, she had jumped to her feet and glowered at the smaller woman.
"I cannot believe you dare comparing me to this ... this woman." Out of Mara's
mouth the word sounded like a despicable thing.

In an instant, Leia was on her feet, too, her emotions surging quite as high
as the one of her sister-in-law: "Why can't I do that, Mara? Like her, you
suddenly appear and claim you love my brother."

"I have NOT stolen someone else's body and forced myself into a life that
doesn't belong to me."

Leia leaned forward, her voice a hiss that belied her petite, slender
appearance: "Don't you see that this is NOT what matters? Don't you see it,
Mara?"

When the Master Trader didn't answer to that, Leia whirled around, clearly
doing her best to keep her composure. "I have seen what it did to Luke when
Callista left. I have seen how he invested all of himself into this
relationship, how he gave his heart to her and how she flung it back into
his face as if it was a mere pebble she had picked up at a beach somewhere."

With another whirl, a distressed, yet still beautiful face, fumed up at
Mara, a stubbornness shining in the eyes that wanted to make Mara understand
under any circumstances.

"Callista and I, we were sitting there in my living room and she TOLD me how
much she loved Luke and that she would NEVER hurt him. Do you understand?
She TOLD me and I BELIEVED her."

Leia's voice dropped to a whisper and her anger left her as she saw
understanding blossom in the emerald eyes of her new sister-in-law. "I
believed her." She repeated.

For what could have been minutes, the two women just looked at each other,
coming to an understanding that was much more complete than any other they
could have reached during hours of discussion.

"You could not have prevented it, Leia."

When the Princess didn't respond, Mara gently prodded a little more.
Strange, she mused, how she could change roles so quickly from the one
attacked to the soothing party.

"Callista believed that herself, you know. How could you have known what
would happen? What would you have been able to DO if you had known?"

Leia sank back down onto her chair, staring off into nothingness for a few
seconds until Mara's voice brought her back to the present.

"Luke is his own person, Leia. He has to make the choices, he has to bear
the consequences."

The Chief-of-State laughed and it sounded only half-hollow. "You're sounding
like Han."

Mara grinned: "I don't believe I'm saying this, but if that is so, then that
Corellian natural disaster is quite right."

Once again, their eyes made contact, but there was no fury or challenge to
be found in either of their gazes. When Leia finally spoke again, her voice
was soft, but had lost the desperate, enraged edge it had sported for the
last half-hour.

"Luke is special, Mara. Very special. He does deserve to be happy. And I
will see to it that he is. No matter what."

The ex-Emperor's Hand matched her serious, dead-earnest tone exactly: "So
will I."

There was still the slightest trace of doubt in the eyes of the Princess and
Mara decided to clear this up once and for all. It didn't suffice for Leia
to KNOW this, she had to believe it. If she didn't believe it, she would
never be able to trust her sister-in-law one hundred percent with her
brother.

"Leia, do you really believe I have to know Luke's favourite food to make
this relationship work?"

The Alderaanian blushed - that was a first, Mara noted with amusement - and
averted her eyes. "No, of course not. I'm sorry... that was not the most
brilliant way to start this talk. Everything I wanted to show you, Mara, is
that I... that I'm not sure you know Luke enough to be aware of the kind of
relationship he needs."

"And you're aware of that?"

Leia nodded with a certainty that almost appalled Mara. It was definitely
not a good thing for a husband to have a sister that protective. The Master
Trader made a mental note to congratulate Iella on her luck that Syal
Antilles' whereabouts were currently unknown.

Doing her best not to show her annoyance too clearly, Mara replied as calmly
as she could: "I know that Luke and I are pretty different. I have heard
people say we're the exact opposites of each other."

Leia nodded but had the common sense not to interrupt her sister-in-law.

"I don't personally think we are, but I'm aware that it won't always be easy
for me to adapt. And sometimes, I might absolutely refuse to adapt."

Immediately, the Princess' face darkened and Mara could almost hear the
alarms going off in the aristocratic beauty opposite her. For that, she
didn't give her the slightest possibility to get a word out and continued as
quickly as she could.

"But that does not mean it won't work out. You see, Leia, to make a
relationship work, it needs two people and a lot of compromises. I will do
my share, but I will expect the same of Luke. I don't know what we will
clash over, I don't know WHETHER we will significantly clash at all, but I
DO know that I love your brother."

Having a startling feeling of not being herself while talking - she was
usually not that sensitive and she knew it - Mara heard herself continue
even more. "I love him more than anything else, Leia, and I know how special
he is. I count myself extremely lucky to have him and I still don't know
whether I DESERVE him. But I will not hurt him. Not willingly. Not ever."

"This is what I wanted to hear." Leia finally said, her voice firm and clear
once again. Mara could feel the turmoil in the Princess' soul. She was
surprised at the turn of events and the ex-Emperor's Hand would have lied if
she had said she wasn't so herself. But all in all, what counted was that
Leia finally stopped behaving towards her like she had done all of the time.

"Does that mean we have peace?"

Leia grinned: "I guess so."

Mara nodded, her face bereft of any deeper emotion: "Very well. But I have
to inform you that I have one condition for you.

The Princess frowned slightly, obviously surprised by this. "Which would
be?"

The former assassin's delicate face erupted into a wide, feral grin: "NEVER
again compare me with that creature. It annoys me."

Leia's eyes twinkled amused as she caught on the humour in her
sister-in-law's behaviour: "And? Shall I be afraid for my life now?"

Mara shook her head, still grinning: "Not for yours. For your brother's. If
I'm annoyed, he's usually at the receiving end."

The Chief-of-State laughed out loud: "Better him than me."

Her sister-in-law joined in her laughter and together they proceeded with
dinner preparations.

*~~

Two hours later, the whole family was gathered in the dining room around an
elaborately covered table. Han and Luke had returned from their 'mission'
roughly an hour earlier and had spent most of the time since with the
children in the living room, putting the finishing touches to the
decorations there.

Now they had all just sat down and were curiously eyeing the silver plates
that were still covered to keep their contents unknown.

Leia sat at one end of the table, Han to her right and Luke to her left. On
Han's side of the table, the twins Jacen and Jaina stared in rapt attention
and obvious hunger on the plates, their Force presences bristling with
barely contained energy. They obviously found it extraordinarily difficult
to do it all in the pace of the adults. Young Anakin Solo had taken seat
next to Mara, who thus was sitting between her nephew and her husband.

"Were you successful at Retsin Plaza?" Leia inquired, taking her time to
ready her napkin in her lap and smiling over at her brother.

Luke was mustering her suspiciously, his deep blue eyes wandering to and fro
between his sister and his wife, trying to gauge the mood of the two most
important women in his life.

"Yeah. We didn't have any problems, there were enough left." Han seemed
fairly unconcerned by it all, as he had obviously something different to be
miffed about. Luke shot him a broad grin and Leia rolled her eyes.

"So, what did you do?"

Both men turned their faces to her, perfect innocence in their eyes: "What?"

"WHAT did you do?" Leia repeated, specifically targeting Han with her
relentless gaze. The tall Corellian made a grimace and the Jedi Master
opposite him erupted into chuckles that he could barely contain.

"We went to Retsin Plaza, bought a bush and drove back home. What else
should we have done?" Han murmured, gesturing quickly to the plates: "Let's
start, okay?" The dark glances he shot at his brother-in-law let the former
farmboy only loose more of his composure and finally Luke couldn't help but
fill his sister in.

"Han is going to take care of the dishes this evening. He needed twice the
time to get back home from Retsin Plaza than I needed to get there."

"You raced?" Mara gave him a chiding glare and Luke just shrugged: "Hey, it
was just a speeder. Those things can't go quick."

"Sure. That's why I let Anakin fly one." Leia uttered deadpan, nodding to
3-PO when the golden plaited droid offered to pour wine into her glass.

Luke gave her one of his broadest smiles: "Come on, sis. You know how I fly.
There was never a danger."

Leia couldn't help the smirk that stole on her face and her brother leaned
back in his seat, satisfied that his beloved sister knew exactly what he
could do.

"It was just the stupid traffic drone." Han felt compelled to explain.

"Dad, it's ALWAYS the stupid traffic drone." Jaina giggled and after a short
moment of outrage, Han grinned broadly: "Well, keep it in mind, sweetie,
because it's one of the best excuses that you can get when you're too late
for some diplomatic dinner that you're not interested in."

"Can't we start now?" Jacen threw in eagerly and with a smile to her oldest
son, Leia waved to 3-PO to reveal the delicacies on the trays.

Every one of them was treated with an attavi steak roasted at the perfect
temperature, during an exact amount of time and rounded up with a mix of
fine spices from Corellia, the home planet of this extraordinarily tasty
sort of meat.

The special thing with an attavi steak was it's slightly sour quality, the
reason that made it such a wonderful addition to narmellian fruit fondue.

Arrayed in six baskets wrought from strands plaited in silver and gold were
six different sorts of fruits, carefully prepared - the steamed
hcisk-apples, glis berries carefully clothed into a mantle of sugar and four
more kinds of sweets, all of them representing different flavours.

To complete the fondue, there were six more bowls, held in bronze, that were
filled with chocolate sauces of different flavours and colours, ranging from
finest white chocolate from Alderaan to nearly-black gendin mocca from
Anteas VII.

With immense satisfaction, both women noted the way Luke's eyes lighted up
at the sight of the dinner in front of him and he smiled broadly at his
sister as he dipped one of the hcisk apples into the mocca and popped it
into his mouth. "Excellent. I had no idea you were going to do that one for
today."

"That's the nature of surprises, isn't it?"

He nodded, his smile firmly etched on his features.

Without much more hesitation, the whole family started savouring the
delicious meal. It took quite some time until someone interrupted the
comfortable silence.

"So, how did you two get along? Any major casualties?"

Luke stopped chewing for a moment, glaring at Han from his seat. The
Corellian just smirked at him, immensely enjoying the small revenge for his
brother-in-law's victory earlier during the day.

Mara smiled, taking a sip of the exclusive wine Leia had served for the
evening: "No, none at all, Solo. We just had a small discussion - about
general comparisons."

"Comparisons?" Han echoed, his hazel eyes twinkling.

The redhead nodded: "Yes. Your wife compared me to Callista..."

At that point, Luke almost choked on the glis berries he had just been about
to swallow. His eyes going wide, he sent a horrified gaze towards his sister
just in order to switch into something that could only be entitled an
apologizing expression he grazed his wife with.

"... and I made clear to her that there is nothing to be compared. We are
perfectly unanimous now that this is indeed correct." She lifted her glass
again, saluting her sister-in-law and Leia reciprocated the gesture with a
smile on her face.

Luke, coughing shortly into a napkin, had lost a little bit of colour and
looked more than a little dubious: "You're... ah...unanimously in agreement,
yes?"

His sister nodded determinedly: "Indeed."

"Absolutely." Mara underlined.

Seeing that the Jedi Master still didn't look too sure, both women erupted
into laughter. It was his wife, in the end, that nudged him gently into the
side and gestured to his plate: "Stop staring and start eating, farmboy. You
don't want that steak to get cold, it's 40 creds per piece."

Luke resumed eating mechanically, an expression of wonderment on his face.
Only slowly, the smile returned to his features, but then it seemed broader
and more heart-felt than any other before this evening.

A few minutes later, the Tatooinian's eyes met those of the Corellian and
Han winked shortly. He was as glad as Luke that this situation had resolved.
True, he had no idea what kind of discussion had taken place, but in this
special case, the end justified the means. No one wanted Leia and Mara
together in one room, both ready to tear each other apart. Especially not if
the evening was intended to be peaceful.

*~~

Night had long fallen when the whole Skywalker / Solo clan gathered in the
living room. The excitement of the children had reached its peak. This was
the moment of truth for them. After the dinner, they would come into the
fully decorated living room and gifts would not have to wait much longer.

Mara found herself quite as excited as her niece and nephews as Luke laid an
arm around her shoulders and trailed with her behind his sister and
brother-in-law in the living room's direction.

"Nervous?" he asked softly.

His wife shrugged, her arm sneaking around his waist, as it did always
nowadays. Luke enjoyed it immensely and wondered how he could have ever
taken a walk without this precious woman in his arms.

"It'll be my first Festival of Light. We didn't even have decorations in the
Imperial Palace when I was the Emperor's Hand. And when I was with Karrde.....
I never really acknowledged the holiday, you know."

Luke hugged her closer still and whispered in her ear: "Then I think you
will like it. It's beautiful, believe me."

Mara had no time to give any answer as he pushed her in front of himself
through the door to the living room. Though the fiery woman had never had a
particular streak for mush or romance, she couldn't help but gasp in delight
at what she was seeing. It was a picture of beauty, serenity and comfort and
it emitted a strong sense of love and peace that she had barely ever felt.

Only falling asleep in Luke's arms could do something similar to her.

Numerous candles were giving soft light all through the room, being put into
every place they could fit. The burgundy wax they were made of set beautiful
accents without drawing too much attention to it, because the attention
should remain somewhere totally else.

Festoons were encompassing the whole room, thinly wrought strands of silver
and gold adorned with little stars and suns, polished so that the
candlelight caught in them. Additionally, little stars and suns were also
plastered onto the walls, reflecting light of their own.

In the corner of the room stood the bounty of Han's and Luke's trip to
Retsin Plaza - a lavia bush, grown on the far-away world of Andorn. Its
leaves were tiny and star-shaped, of an elegant light-blue, hued with
silver, and sparkled in the light of the candles as if veritable stars would
hide in their midst.

Around it on the floor, mounds of presents were assembled, waiting for their
recipients to open them.

"You like it?"

Her husband's voice brought her back to reality and she saw Luke's eyes
brighten when he noticed her awe and surprise on her features. "You like
it." The Jedi Master whispered in response to himself, his voice radiating
the relief and joy that he felt upon this revelation.

Mara could just nod and had real problems to get a grip on her composure
when she was swept up in hugs from all sides and heard "Happy Festival of
Light" from all of the members of her new family. Even Han dragged her into
his arms, and Han and Luke, too, were not too embarrassed to hug and clap
each other on the back.

Together, they settled on the plush sofas and armchairs that were positioned
in a half-circle, so that they all looked straight at the lavia bush.
Occasionally, a small rainbow would dance over the wall, created by another
snowflake that caught the light of a passing speeder.

Never had the former smuggler seen something so perfect. Never had she felt
so whole and so loved as in this very moment, as she melted into Luke's
embrace, leaning her cheek onto his warm chest and hearing his heartbeat,
feeling his excitement and deep happiness.

For a few precious minutes, they all just regarded the flawless scene in
front of them. Even the three children were calm and looked on in reverence,
catching up on the special mood of the adults. They didn't understand why it
was so special for their parents to be together like this, like a normal
family, but they did understand that it was something extraordinary this
evening and they wanted to be respectful of that.

Finally though, after what had to be a quarter of an hour, neither the twins
nor their younger brother could be restrained anymore. The gifts had to be
opened. Mara, still leaning into Luke's protective and tender embrace,
didn't even bother to hide her broad smile and her enjoyment.

Ere long, Jaina came raced over to her uncle and aunt, squealing in delight
as she brandished her brand-new multi-tool. Luke had fulfilled a long-time
wish of hers with this present and of course, naturally, he had added his
very personal touch to it, as he did with everything. A small dedication had
been carved into the handle and he had added a small collection of ten
data-cards that he had compiled himself - little exercises for her to hone
her pretty obvious technical skills.

Only a few seconds later, Jacen joined his twin, wide-eyed, grinning all
over his face as he drew the present paper off his present, revealing a huge
box made out of dark ch'ala wood. In golden letters "Encyclopaedia of
Galactic Beasts and Plants" was written all over it and it contained one
hundred data disks full of pictures, descriptions, and holos.

Luke beamed next to her, graciously accepting the big bear hugs he got from
his niece and nephew before they withdrew back to the bush to examine their
presents closer.

Mara had already wondered where Anakin had gotten to when the little boy
appeared in her field of vision, turning his serious, ice-blue eyes on his
uncle, his present still wrapped in his hands. With all the reverence of a
little child, he dropped to the floor in front of the sofa his aunt and
uncle sat on, taking his time to tear the paper away with all due care.

When he had ended, he surveyed his present, clearly pleased, but also
insecure what it was all about. Luke carefully made himself free of his wife
and joined his youngest nephew on the floor. Mara remained lying, but robbed
a little closer. She, too, was curious about what Luke had manufactured for
his nephew, as she had no clue of the presents that he had cooked up in his
private room.

Luke helped Anakin unpack and put a square of dark wood onto the floor.
Grooves were carved all over it, sometimes interrupted by holes or little
barriers. The boy next took two small sacks of linen out of the present box,
one of them golden, the other silver, and opened them. Little balls of lava
crystals, polished, one set white and one set red, were contained in them.
Luke put them all over the board, onto places he indicated to his nephew,
then explained: "You have to manoeuvre the balls of your adversary into the
holes. The grooves are alternately falling and rising, you have the barriers
to think about and the chain effect. The one who looses all his balls first
is out of the game."

The eyes so startlingly like Luke's lighted up in delight and after the Jedi
Master had promised to play with the boy later on, Anakin was off to make
his siblings see what he had got from the Jedi Master.

Mara smiled at Luke, tugging a strand of sandy blonde hair behind his right
ear: "You did that yourself, didn't you?"

Luke nodded: "Yeah. It's just a simple game, nothing elaborate. But then,
he's just 9 and a half."

Mara stared at him for a moment: "You INVENTED that game?"

The Jedi nodded bashfully, grinning at her: "He knows most of the ones you
can buy around here. And the best you can do to him is present him with a
challenge. However, until next year, I have to come up with something new."

The ex-Emperor's Hand laughed, robbed closer to him and kissed his throat:
"He's too much like you."

Luke grinned again, then looked over to Han and Leia: "Now's the round for
the adults." He called and his sister and brother-in-law came over, smiling.

The Jedi Master stretched a little and fished for a while under the bush,
until he presented a tiny package wrapped in metallic paper. With a
deadpanned face, he gave it to Han.

The Corellian perched an eyebrow, clearly startled by the small nature of
his present. Looking decidedly as if he was going to be miffed, he unwrapped
it and started dead in his tracks.

"I don't believe it." He breathed, staring at the cube in his hands.... It fit
without problems into his palms, looked almost like a pebble in the big
hands of the tall man.

"I trust it you don't have such a thing yet." Luke said, doing his best to
keep his satisfaction out of his voice.

Han stared at him as if he had grown horns: "OF COURSE I don't have it yet.
It's brand-new. It's... it's great! Kid, how did you PAY for that?"

Luke shrugged: "It's all about connections, Han."

Leia peered over her husband's shoulder, frowning: "What is it?"

"This," Han said, his voice reverent, "is a state-of-the art long range
communicator."

"The Falcon has a long range communicator."

Both Han and Luke shook their heads at the Princess and even Mara had to
chuckle.

"Leia," the former pirate started again, "this is the LATEST there is. If I
put it into the Falcon here, I can reach people over at Nirauan without so
much as a hiss disrupting the holo."

The Princess's eyes widened and she looked at her brother: "I'm SURE it is
illegal for Han to own this thing."

Luke laughed: "That's the fun with the present, sis."

Han just clapped Luke on the shoulder, obviously absolutely in love with his
present. Leia was still shaking her head when the Jedi Master presented a
HUGE package that he placed into her lap as if it would break if he moved to
quickly.

"Be careful while unpacking. And let me hold it, it's pretty heavy." He
ushered, not even meeting her gaze. Leia felt his nervousness, his slight
embarrassment and she knew that Luke was not sure whether he had made the
right choice.

She took the wrapping off, slowly opening the lid of the box. Luke didn't
give her much time to take a closer look, but already took something huge
out of the package and placed it on the desk in slow motion, making sure it
stood perfectly secure. Then he turned it so that light of the candles gave
enough view and made the way free for Leia to take a look at it.

And when she did, her hand flew to her mouth, muffling her cry to a small
gasp. What stood in front of her was a dream.

It was a sphere, resting in a delicate construction consisting of a bowl and
a small pedestal. All of it was made of finest white crystal - nothing
overly expensive, but still elegant and awesome. The sphere itself was
carved and worked on to reveal patterns. Patterns she could recognise
anywhere in a matter of mere seconds.

Continents, seas, mountains.... In front of her stood a perfect replica of
Alderaan, made out of crystal. She had never seen anything like it and that
made her realise immediately that Luke had handcrafted it himself.

She stared at him, feeling a lump in her throat, unable to say anything,
even when she saw that he was anxiously awaiting her reaction.

Luke wetted his lips and scurried over to her again.

"That's not yet all." He said, softly taking her free hand and directing it
to a small dent at the side of the pedestal. She felt a small button and
pressed it when her brother nodded at her encouragingly.

The sphere sprung to life, so to speak, small, tactically set lights in its
innermost center starting to glow. Brown for the continents, adorned with a
soft green for the vegetation and blue for the seas and numerous lakes
within the landmasses.

Han softly whistled at the sight.

Luke scratched his head a little insecurely at the stunned expression of his
sister. "Uh... do you like it?"

The answer he got was more than expressive. Before he could utter another
questioning word, Leia had thrown himself into his arms and kissed him on
the chin. Her eyes were wet with tears as she met his earnest, loving gaze:
"It is wonderful, Luke. It is... it is breathtaking. Thank you. Thank you so
much."

Luke found his grin back, pressed her at himself for a few precious minutes,
then released her, catching some of her tears with his thumb. She kissed him
again on the chin, then scurried back to the table to examine all the
details of her present.

"Now, that leaves only you." Luke said, looking at Mara with an expression
that made her swallow. She would have lied if she had said that she wasn't
curious what he had for her and she admitted that she couldn't imagine that
this could be topped.

Once again, Luke Skywalker should surprise her.

He presented her with a slender package wrapped in black silk and a golden
ribbon, sitting at her feet as she rose, like an eager puppy waiting for
approval. Although Mara berated herself for it, she felt and saw her hands
tremble a little as she opened it.

"Did you make that yourself, too?" She asked even before she opened the case
that was contained in the wrapping.

Luke just nodded.

Mara opened the case and felt like someone had pulled the rug out under her
feet. She had known that Luke was very gifted with his hands, but she had
never quite seen him do anything but repairing a starship. Of course, he had
worked on the crystals for his lightsaber himself, so she shouldn't have
been surprised that he was apt at this kind of thing, but this... this was
overwhelming.

She didn't even want to know how he had paid for it, but then she thought
that if he had worked it out himself, he had just had to find the gems and
that was not difficult if you lived on a world with active volcanoes.

On a necklace of simple silver was a gem that was absolutely stunning in its
beauty. Of a deep jade green, it was worked into a square that was tipped on
one of its corners. As if that weren't beautiful enough, Mara saw another
gem, in its very center, worked INTO the emerald....

"Grown into it."

She hadn't even noticed how Luke had slipped next to her, his voice a hot
breath on her cheek.

"Grown? But that takes..."

"A lot of time. I started early." The faintest trace of a smile was on his
face, but for the most part, he was focused completely on her.

She took a closer look, seeing that a pure, azure aquamarine was at the
center, its colour only really visible when the light struck it at a certain
angle.

"This is so beautiful..." she whispered, feeling awed that anyone would give a
present of this kind to her. "It's..."

"Symbolic." He tugged one of her red-gold strands behind her ear, kissing
her lips softly. "You've caught me, Mara Jade, caught me totally and I don't
want to be free ever again." He tenderly took the charm out of her hands and
laid it around her throat, securing the necklace firmly.

Then he stood, moved around her and looked straight at her. A heart-felt
smile made him seem so beautiful and so full of love that Mara felt moisture
work its way into her eyes, quite as it had happened to Leia some minutes
ago.

Curse that Jedi for his knack to find her soft spots.

"It looks wonderful on you." He said, finally being reverent himself.

"It is too much." She shook her head, accepting his hand and rising herself.

Luke drew her close, enfolding her once more into the embrace of his
well-muscled, strong arms. "No. No, Mara, it is not nearly enough."

Together, they sank back onto the sofa, clinging to each other and Mara
allowed herself to relax completely. Soon, she would give her own present to
Luke, as would Han and Leia, but at the very moment, all she wanted to do
was lying here with Luke and enjoying this moment.

She had not believed that this day could become perfect and wonderful for
her. All she had hoped for was not becoming too annoyed with anyone.
Instead, it had become one of the most beautiful days since her wedding.

Smiling, Mara drank in the sight of the lavia bush. She had never had a
reason to miss the Festival of Light. From now on, she would if she ever
didn't celebrate with these people around her.

Only a couple of years ago, she had thought that a place to fit in, a place
to call home, was not the most important thing in life. But she had been
wrong. This was her place. This was where she fit in. In Luke's embrace,
surrounded by all those people that loved him and that had accepted her in
their circle of friendship and affection.

And she never wanted to miss it again in her life.

~*Finis*~