Notes:  Sort of a sequel to "Postcards from Corellia," so read
that first.  Also a response to the "new challenge for a new year."
Poetry is not mine, belongs to a long-dead lecher named Solomon.

Warning: Poetry! This is slash!  That means two guys having sex.  So
if you have a problem with this (or if you're in the "Han is
irrevocably Het" crowd) clear out now.  You are warned.

Acknowledgement: Fiona who beta'd

Feedback: I crave it. It's my favorite high.

****
All the Waters of Corellia
2001 Angelia Sparrow
****

"Elka, who is the best poet in the family?"

The Captain of the Millennium Falcon glanced away
from the cockpit pickup and checked the instruments.
The simulcrum of his sister stood on the
navigator's board.

The blonde matriarch's holo looked thoughtful.
"Depends on what you want, baby. Heroic ballads?
That'd be Wila.  Modernistic stuff is best done
by Seska's Brant."

"Romantic.  I want something special for Luke."

"That'd be Lissa.  Hold on and I'll call her."
Elka vanished briefly except for one hand in the
holopickup's range.  A small giggle caught his
attention and he watched as a baby crawled past
the pickup, followed by Hend, also crawling.  Lissa
came into view.

"Hi, Uncle Han.  What can I do for you?"

"Lissa, honey, I need a romantic poem.  Elka says
you write the best ones.  Luke and I have been
bonded 10 years, and I want to have something
very special and personal for him this year."

"Write it yourself, would be my best advice."

"I tried.  You don't want to know how bad it
was.  Please?"  He turned the charm up to
megawattage.

"All right.  I'll have it ready by your renewal
date.  I-"  Hend came back into range, carrying
the baby, and tickling her.

"Wuv oo, wuv oo, wuv oo!" he cooed into her tummy.
She let fly gales of laughter as he blew a
razzberry on her.

"Hend, I'm on the comm!  That's very annoying."

"Sorry, sweet." The man took a look at the holo.
"Uncle Han."

"Hend."

"Sorry about that.  She's got a wild streak.
Oh, you stinkpot," he chuckled as the baby tried
to rearrange his cheekbones.  He shifted the
child and turned to go.  "You're daddy's bitsy
pookums, aren't you?  Yes, you are," he cooed at
her as he left the pickup's range.

"I wuv oo?  Bitsy pookums?"  The horror in Han's
voice made Lissa chuckle.

"Oh, Hend's just a big goof about babies.  Marni
and I are lucky he likes them.  I'll have your
poem for you, Uncle.  Take care.  Here, Mama."

Elka stepped back into the range.  "Sorry about
Hend.  Sure you won't reconsider moving back?"
She considered a second.  "After that, probably
not.  Although, I bet you'd be pretty proficient
at baby talk if you tried."

"Thanks, Elka."  Han ignored the insistant
offer his sister was re-iterating: that he and Luke needed
to make some provision to having children.  "Have her Send
it to these coordinates. They're Luke's place on Yavin.
Say hello to everyone for me.  I'm coming out of hyper.
Talk to you soon.  Love you, sis."

"Love you, too, baby."

He shut down the holo pickup.  Chewbacca came
forward and together they made the transition to
normal space.  They were orbiting Yavin, on a
course to the fourth moon.  Luke had moved his
Jedi school here from Coruscant a year
earlier, finding it easier to teach without the
distractions of the Republic Capitol.

Luke finished packing his carrybag as he addressed
the woman on the viewscreen.  "Hello, Elka."

"Luke!  What a surprise!  Did Han arrive all right?"

"He's fine.  Elka, dear sister, I need a big favor.
Who writes the best poetry in the family?  I want a
really special renewal gift for Han this year."

Elka arched one elegant eyebrow.  "Romantic, I
suppose?" Seeing Luke nod, she said "Hold, please."
The tiny redhead appeared on the screen.

"Hi, Lissa."

"Uncle Luke!" she chirped.  Lissa had always liked
him.

"Lissa, I need a big favor. I want you to write a romantic
poem for Han.  I tried but it came out sappy.  Will you,
please?  And keep it quiet, I want it to be a surprise."

"Of couse, Uncle.  I'll have it for your renewal."
Her lopsided smile held mischief he could not see.

"Thank you, Lissa.  Here are the coordinates for our
cottage.  You do have a Matter-Sender?"  She nodded.
"Thanks sweetheart.  And good fortune with the baby."

"It's nothing, Uncle Luke.  Love you.  Here, Mama."

"What are you boys planning for the Renewal?  A full
ceremony?"

"A quiet evening together.  Something we get entirely too
seldom.  Thank you, Elka."

"You're welcome.  And do visit soon, sweetie."

"We will, Elka.  'Bye."  He switched off the viewscreen
and the message light flashed at him.  He triggered it.

"Master Skywalker, the Millenium Falcon docked at
1437, local time."

Luke checked his chrono and saw he had less than three
minutes before his bondmate arrived.  His things were ready,
his room was in order.  He made one final sweep, picking up
the toothcleaner.  He loved his mate dearly, but Corellian
dentifrices made his eyes water.  He was waiting behind
the door when Han opened it.

"Luke?  You ready to go?" Han called as he stepped into
the room.

Like a bolt of dark lightening, Luke launched out from
behind the door, knocking Han across the room, and onto
the bed.  He perched atop his mate, kissing him fiercely.

"Hi," Luke said brightly as he let them up for air.

"Miss me?"  Han's chuckle was half-incredulous, half-teasing.

"Always.  I'm ready to go."  He kissed Han again, hungry
need evident in every movement of his lips.  "I miss you
terribly.  Maybe moving to Yavin wasn't a good idea."

"Maybe."  Han pulled out his comlink.  "And maybe I have
a good one.  Shall I tell Chewie it'll be a while?"

Luke thought it over.  "Only if you want to tell him to
take a week's vacation.  I'd hate to think I did all that
packing for nothing."

"Guess you did miss me."  Quicker than Luke could react, Han
overbalanced him and rolled him to his back on the narrow bed.
"Know what?"  He kissed Luke hard, teeth clashing, tongues
duelling, and the taste of blood from a split lip adding to the
arousal.  "I missed you too."  He ran a cautious tongue over his
mouth, only to find it was his own lower lip that was bleeding.
"If you're gonna hold out until we're at your place, let's see how
fast we can get the old girl off the ground."  One more kiss, this
one slower, gentler and far more thorough, and Han pulled them
both to their feet.

Luke scooped up the carrybag, and hit his mate with the wicked
grin that the smuggler found utterly irresistable.  "Were we
five years younger, I'd offer to race you.  Instead, come on."
He held out his bare right hand, a gesture he only ever made
to Han.

Moving with a speed unseemly to a Republic General and a
Jedi Teacher, the two men were aboard the Falcon and lifting
in less than ten standard minutes.  The bunnyhop across the
planet took a few more minutes, and they set the Falcon down
on the landing pad near the tiny house.

*Go,* Chewbacca chortled at them, amusement evident in the ancient
blue eyes.  *You smell as if the pheromones of your entire species
are allotted to the two of you.  I will stay at the Academy, and
return in three days to make sure you remember to eat and drink.*
They laughed at the wookiee, but half-dashed off the ship, carrybags
in hand, arms around each other's shoulders.

Han paused them and watched as his ship took off, headed for the
Massiassi temple.  "Sloppy, sloppy," he grumbled as Chewbacca
executed a roll and waggled the ship.  "So," he turned to look
at Luke's cottage.  "this is your place."

Luke had been on Yavin since shortly after their last renewal date.
He had come to Coruscant twice, and Han had come to Yavin six times.
It was common knowledge in New Republic Ship Design that General
Solo tested all the prototypes personally, and Coruscant to Yavin
was the shakedown run.  The standing joke was that the evaluation of
the prototype depended on how much sleep his mate let him get:
the less sleep, the better the evaluation.  The longest time they
had spent together was an eight day trip to Corellia, only four of
which they spent at Stom and Elka's.

All of Han's visits had been spent at the temple: stolen moments
between Luke's classes; desultory lovemaking, always initiated
by him, on the hard, narrow bed before his mate fell into
exhausted sleep; hasty meals, and all-too-rapid departures.  Only
once had he managed to coordinate his arrival with the beginning
of the three weekly days of rest, despite his best efforts.  He
had not yet seen the house Luke was preparing, at Luke's insistance.
It was to be a place just for the two of them, where they could
leave the Jedi teacher and the Republic General, and all the rest of
the Galaxy, outside.

Luke shifted his weight almost nervously as Han looked at the house.
It was small, but neat, made of the native stone set in interesting
patterns.  The ceramic tile roof would stand up to Yavin's worst
torrential rains.  He had worked on it on the three rest days each
week, and it was finally done, right on schedule.

"Cozy," Han commented.  The little house was no bigger than
the Falcon.

"Tiny, you mean.  It's big enough.  Come on."  Luke's artifical
hand closed just a hair too tightly on Han's real one.  He ignored
it.

Han was eager to see the inside.  Luke had never decorated any of
the series of apartments they had shared.  He said they weren't home
and he would only invest the effort of decorating in a home.
Han, having always traveled light, had never added personal touches
either, and the apartments were always as empty when they left as
when they had arrived.  It suddenly hit him, he had no idea what his
mate considered a well-appointed house.

Luke stopped Han at the door.  "There's an old Tatooine custom that
the mate being brought into the new house for the first time enters
with shut eyes.  That way, the other can present the best part of
the house first.  Please?"

Han shut his eyes.  "Far be it from me to argue with old customs."

Luke kissed him, slow and sweet, his tongue warm and indulgent.
"Thank you."  He knew how hard it was, even now, for Han to
voluntarily give up his sight for even the briefest periods.-

Han held out both hands and Luke pulled him into the house,
leading him carefully to the middle of a room.  Han gathered
what information he could from his other senses.  His feet
were noiseless, and the carpet was soft.  The room smelled clean
and new and slightly green, as if Luke had plants in it.  A spicy
undertone he couldn't place also reached him.  It was moist and
slightly too warm.  A faint sound of falling water reminded him
he needed the 'fresher.  Luke dropped his hands and moved behind him.

"Han."  Luke's hands covered his mate's eyes as
he sighed the name into the welcoming ear.  "Open
your eyes."  As he felt the flutter of eyelashes,
he took his hands away.  "Welcome home, my heart."

Han looked around.  The whole house was one single room,
walk in closet and 'fresher not withstanding.  A food synth
on one wall, and a view screen on the other, both lying in
easy reach of the bed that dominated the room.

The corner-posts were taller than Han and a hand-span thick.  Each
was elaborately carved with vines, strange flora and stranger fauna,
and topped with a silver metal ball.  The footrail was a frenzy of
scrollwork as were the sideboards, which turned into drawers
as they reached the floor.  The headboard, almost as high
as Luke's nose, was a baroque nightmare of frolicking near-human
forest gods and wood nymphs.

The whole frame was scarlet gra'al wood, and emitted the faintly
spicy scent.  The bedding was pale gold: soft seln sheets, and a
thick duvet, invitingly turned back.  The pillows were a rainbow
cascade at the head of the bed: some big and puffy, that would be
like sleeping on a cloud, others small and flat, like resting
the head on a board.

Han gaped at the sheer scale of the bed.  It was at least three
meters wide and four long.  The top of the mattress was almost
a meter off the floor.  It would hold half a dozen wookiees, let
alone two humans.  "Kid, you expecting company?  Like a whole
platoon?"

"No, just us.  I thought we'd spend this visit in bed, eating,
sleeping, talking and making love.  So, we needed a nice big one."
Luke pressed closer to Han's back, wanting to feel all of his mate's
flesh under his hands.

"What'd you do?  Buy out an Ord Mantell pleasure house?"

"Actually, you could say I inherited it," Luke said against
the back of his neck.  "Shall we see if it's comfortable?"

"You don't know?"

"Of course not.  I sat on it once to make sure it wasn't
rock hard, and I made it up, but I haven't slept in it.
It wouldn't be right to sleep in our bed alone.  I won't
sleep here while you're gone either.  This is for us."

"Inherited it?"  A cold hand seized Han's insides and twisted hard.
He'd come to terms with Luke's parentage, but the idea of
sleeping in Vader's bed turned his stomach.  In his younger
days, it would have been a way to thumb his nose at the Empire:
having the Sith lord's son in his very bed.  But the Empire was long
gone, and his own wild, defiant streak had cooled with age.

"My father was a very wealthy man.  I only recently finalized all
the pieces of the estate.  This was his and Mother's.  I found it
in a sealed wing of his palace about six years ago, and had to clean
thirty years of dust out of the scrollwork.  Shipping it without
you finding out was a real headache."  Luke's hands were not idle,
and as Han listened to the much-loved and often-missed voice, he
realized his gunbelt was sliding to the floor, and his vest was
long gone.

Han took in the rest of his surroundings hastily as his mate's
hands continued to undress him.  The wall at the foot of the bed,
the one they had entered through, shifted the scenery from a
Dagobah swamp to a Corellian ocean.  Han remembered the trickle
of water, and placed a small fountain on a decorative bar, next
to two lavishly green plants.  The wall with the viewscreen was
pale blue, nearly white.  It encapsulated several things in a
protective force-field, screening out Yavin's dampness: a flat
drum, an X-wing helmet, a few holos of places, one of the Falcon,
and the only one of humans: the two of them, looking at each other.

"Our Bonding," Han managed.  Luke's hands were very distracting,
and his mouth had progressed over one shoulder.

"Mmm-hm.  Chewie gave it to me."

"Sneak."  Han pulled Luke around to face him.  "Half
the galaxy help you get this place ready?"

"No, just Chewie and Leia.  Well, Madine and Lando
helped me get the bed here without you knowing.
You have a lot of people who love you in a lot of ways."

"But you best of all."  Han pulled him in for a kiss.
Slowly, he backed Luke toward the ridiculous bed.
The scenery wall shifted to Coruscant traffic, distracting him.
"Turn that thing off."

Luke snapped once, and the wall became a steady starfield.
Somewhere during Han's inspection of the house, he had stripped.
"Are you too warm?  I set it for my comfort."  He licked away a bead
of sweat that had trickled down Han's jaw.  "You always taste
good."  He tripped the enviro controls with the Force and a cool
breeze began cutting through the mugginess.

"Get in bed, Luke.  I'll be right there."  Han slipped
out for a moment, and returned carrying his boots and pants.

Luke lay on his side, propped on one elbow, smiling
invitingly.  The soft gold sheet draped over his hips
in a way that begged to be brushed aside, mirroring the
renewed pallor of his hair.  He was trim and lightly tanned,
looking only a little older than the boy Han had met fifteen
years before.  Yavin was good for him in a way
Coruscant with it's dying sun and thick air could never
be.  Desire, pent up for months, burst the dam
and flooded Han with longing for his mate.  He sat on
the bed, amazed at how comfortable it was, never noticing
he had dropped his clothing.

The huge bed was going to be a problem, Luke could already tell.
He reached out, but Han was well out of arm's length.
Frustrated, he scooted toward the edge of the bed.  Han
turned to face him, and leaned forward for a kiss.
Luke opened to him, wrapping strong arms around him, and
pressing close to every inch of skin he could reach.

Their mouths never left each other's body as their limbs
twined together, indulging in deferred pleasures, denied
desires.  Each taste intoxicated them, each touch intense,
exquisite torment as knowing fingers exploited the
most erogenous parts of the men.

Luke nibbled his way to an ear and gasped, "I want you.
I want to be inside you."  He licked aross Han's cheek
and kissed him hard, nipping at the corners of his
mate's mouth, sliding slickly along the ridged palate,
and tasting the subtle textures, the indefinable
sweet flavor.

Luke heightened his senses with the Force, wanting all
the nuances that were the essence of Han.  The rich feel
of his mate's life-presence, so different than the insistant
piping thoughts of the students or the ever-present greenlife of
the jungle moon, flowed over him, truly relaxing him for
the first time in almost a year.  He wallowed
in it, giving himself over to the kiss and the Force.

Han opened his eyes mid-way through the kiss.  Luke was
always desirable, but today he seemed more urgent, more
wanting than usual.  His eyes were closed, and he was
breathing steadily through his nose.  If not for the
intricate motions of tongue and lips, Han would have
said his mate was asleep.  He eased out of the kiss,
breaking the contact for longer and longer periods of
time until Luke opened his eyes.  They were slightly
glazed, and took a moment to come into focus.

"How?"

"Mmm?"  Luke's mouth was seeking his again.

"How?  Face-to-face?  Hands and knees?  Back-to-back?"
It was a long-standing joke that disguised an actual
request for information.

"Back-to-back?  That could be awkward."  The first part
of the response was always the same.  "Side by side would
be easier."

One last kiss, and Han rolled onto his side, making himself
comfortable, while Luke curled around his mate's larger frame.

"Desk job's getting to you, Han.  There's more of you than
I remembered."  His fingers played light counterpoint to
his teasing, running through the chesthair, plucking at nipples,
navel, outlining ribs.  He manipulated the Force to rearrange the
air molecules, slicking himself and his lover without any mess.
"Ready?"

"Since we left Corellia.  That was the last time, so take it
a little slow.  It's been half a year."

"That long?"  Taking his time, Luke eased into his bondmate, the
tight heat encompassing him, the small gasps from Han lengthening into
a satisfied sigh as Luke sheathed himself fully.

"Yeah.  Right there.  I've been doin' all the work since then."

"We'll just have to fix that this visit."  Luke moved slowly, pacing
himself with an easy rhythm.

"Very nice.  You wanna move a little faster?"  Han made an abortive movement
to touch himself, but Luke was there first.  The warm, smooth skin of his
right hand encircled but did not caress.  He was getting impatient when
Luke's mouth at his neck put some light teeth behind the kiss.

"No.  And you aren't going to move either.  I want to enjoy this.
And when I'm done here, you'll roll over and I'll," he paused and
ran a suggestive tongue along the side of Han's throat, "satisfy you."

"Oh yeah."

Savoring each minute variation of position and tightness, Luke sank
back into the Force, letting Han's pleasure flow over him and
enhance his own.  Frustration and impatience tempered with love
and desire fed his own wanting.  He stepped up the pace,
taking in each detail of his bondmate, all familiar but each
made new by separation.  The warm skin was smooth against
his torso, sweet under his mouth with the enzymes common
to Corellians, the hair sparse on the back, but more
concentrated on the legs.  He pressed closer, deepening the
contact even as he pressed as deep as he could into his lover.

But even Jedi have limitations, and Luke had reached the end of
his own considerable self-control.  He came fully back to current
reality, and moved with sure, steady strokes.

"Ah, kid, you're torturing me.  C'mon."  Han's breathing was ragged
and his voice rough with need.  He thrust against the hand that
enclosed him, wanting his own release.

Luke let go and gripped his mate's hips as the even steady pace
moved into something more frantic.  He clutched too tightly as
every muscle in his body tensed and thrust as deeply as he could
as culmination rolled through him.

He let out the breath he was holding, and relaxed against
Han's back, sated and content.  Han enjoyed the feel of the
warm breath between his shoulders, of his mate softening inside
his body.  The erotic tension was still building within
him, and he moved just a little away.

"Come back to me, Han."  Luke's hands were pressing on his shoulders,
rolling him back.  Each kiss seemed to burn as Luke moved lower,
and it was a struggle not to explode at the first touch of the
soft lips when his lover took him in.

Later, they slept twined around each other.  It had been too
many nights apart since the last visit.  The big bed was comfortable
and no bad dreams lurked in the scrollwork.

**

Morning light slanted across the face of the sleeping Jedi, and his mate
watched for a while, not wanting to disturb him.  The gentle rays
limned his features with liquid gold, and brought out the highlights in his
hair, turning it almost the same shade as the bedclothes.  Sleep erased the
lines from his face, making him young again, taking him to a time before
Vader and Yoda, Death Stars and Jedi, a time when all he wanted was to fly.

Unable to resist, Han reached out a single finger, and slowly drew it along
Luke's jaw, following the molten light.  Luke's eyes fluttered.
Years settled onto his face, cutting channels beside his mouth, waking the
shadows under his eyes.

Han rose before Luke could wake completely and hastily programmed the
foodsynth.  The matter sender flashed a light, letting him know an object
was in queue to arrive.  He flipped the switch to bring it in,
and the foodsynth pinged.  Breakfast was hastily assembled on the tray as he
scooped up the small transfer pod.  He was back to the side of the bed as
Luke opened his eyes and stretched.

"The Sender materialized this for you, Luke."  Han dropped the pod on the
bed, and set the tray of kaf and cakes out of the way.  "Gonna open it?"

"No.  It's just work.  It can wait."  Luke pushed it aside as he sat up,
surreptitiously tossing a corner of the coverlet over it.  He
picked up the kaf and sipped carefully.

"Love you."  Han leaned over and brushed Luke's lips lightly as the cup came
down.  He wondered how he would be able to get his own package
unobtrusively.

"Breakfast first," Luke insisted, reaching for a plate as his stomach
rumbled audibly.  "Even Jedi have to eat.  Especially when we spend half the
night attempting to satisfy an insatiable Corellian."  The last was
half-mumbled around a bite of cake.

"Not a bad attempt.  Want another shot after breakfast?"

Used to the teasing, Luke paid more attention to the food.  When the last of
the frooberry syrup was turning to sticky droplets on the empty plates, Luke
picked up the dishes and dropped them into the recycler.

"Now about that second shot..." he taunted, leaning naked against the
bedpost, only to find his mate had slipped into the 'fresher.  While Han was
taking a shower, Luke opened the pod, and found a small object
neatly wrapped in colorful paper, a very old-fashioned touch.  A close
approximation of his handwriting on a tag read "For Han."

"Lissa, you think of everything," he whispered, and tucked it under his
favorite pillow.  He rose and joined his mate in the 'fresher.

As he slipped under the warm water, Han caught him in for a short kiss.
"This whole place is incredible.  Thank you for it.  Wanna try the tub?"
Luke nodded, his mouth busy on Han's collarbones and ribs. The taller man
turned off the shower, and disentangled himself.

They sat in the oversized tub, the small contoured bench wide enough for the
two of them, letting the warm water swirl around waist-deep arounf them.
Luke leaned into one of the water jets, enjoying himself.

"I never lived anywhere that there was enough water to have a tub like this.
You like it?"

"Oh yeah.  I like the tub, and the house.  And even the bed is getting
better.  It looks best with you in it, kid."

"Flatterer.  You sound like one of my students trying for a better
evaluation."  Luke kissed him quiet.

"Here.  Now.  In the water."  Han pulled him over onto his lap, kissing him
urgently.

Luke straddled his thighs, rubbing against him, and returned the kiss with
equal urgency.  He eased the passage of his mate with the Force as he
enveloped him, and settled into a gentle rocking motion.  "You're keeping
pace real well, old man.  What gives?"

"Who you callin' old, junior?  Corellians hit their sexual peak around
forty."

"After this, it's all down hill?" Luke teased, stopping completely.

"Oh, space you.  Anymore lip, and I'll finish what that garbage monster
started."

"What about this lip?"  Han moaned under the renewed assault on his mouth.
Luke had begun rocking again, this time more insistant.

"Smart-mouthed twitch," he mumbled and gave himself over to the pleasure.

Han left the bath first, and went straight to the sender.  As expected,
there was an item in queue.  He retrieved it.  The small flat parcel was
wrapped in dark paper and a fair likeness of his handwriting said "To Luke."

"Ah, Lissa, darlin."  He tucked the package under his favorite pillow, one
Luke would be unlikely to steal in the night.  That was the advantage of the
astoundingly huge bed: no matter how many covers Luke hogged, there were
always more.  Han had lost count of the nights he had awakened to drafts in
intimate and awkward locations, only to
find his bondmate had cocooned himself in all the bedclothes.

He listened to Luke humming to himself in the bath, and was amused to hear
it was a family song that Marni had taught them on the last trip to
Corellia.  Suddenly, the little house felt too small.  He stepped out the
front door and let the warm jungle dampness roll over him.  The aerial
lizards were calling from the trees, and small sounds came from the forest.
The air was heavy and smelled of growth, foliage and decay.  Yavin 4's blue
sky arched clear, and the great bulk of the gas giant was just peeping over
the horizon.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"  Luke came up behind him and wrapped his arms around
him.  "I read about trees and worlds with unlimited water, but I never
thought I'd see one, let alone live on one.  Yavin holds
a lot of firsts for me."

"Including me."

"Oh stars, we were so drunk that night, and hardly any of it was from
drinking.  I'm still amazed we didn't take Leia with us.  Glad, though."

"Tell you a secret. kid.  I hadn't had anything when you pulled me out of
the party.  I wanted you from the minute I laid eyes on you in Chalmun's."

"A secret?  I knew that.  Did you know I hadn't had anything either?  I was
completely drunk on being alive, and on knowing you were alive, too.  I
didn't want you from Chalmun's, though.  I think I fell in Docking Bay 94."

"You remember the number after all these years?  C'mere."  He pulled Luke
around to the front of him and kissed him.  "Ten years with you."

"I'm older now than you were when we met."  Luke's voice had gone
pensive.  "We've seen so much, sometimes I feel older than Ben."  He fell
silent for a moment, absorbing the warm feel of his bondmate.
"I've got something for you.  In honor of ten years.  Come on back inside."
He pressed Han back toward the house.

"I've got something for you, too.  Had to face my sister to get it.  She
gave me the usual guff about kids.  Seriously, Luke, how do you feel about
one of the girls having kids for us?  Astri says she'd like her last to be
yours.  Elka says-"

"I know what Elka says.  And I won't have a son of mine raised that way!"
The vehemence in Luke's voice startled Han.  They had not discussed children
since the initial visit to Corellia five years before, despite the sometimes
unsubtle pressure from Han's matriarchial sister.  Apparently Luke had given
it some thought as well.  "I won't have him depend on the charity of
relatives, not seeing me but a few times a year.  I love all the girls too
much to hurt them by taking him away from his mother, but I couldn't live
with not being there for him.  It's too similar to how I was raised.  My son
will not be an orphan in your sister's house."

"Shh," Han soothed as they sat on the edge of the bed.  He ran light
massaging hands over Luke's back.  "It's okay.  I was just askin'.  Not like
we wouldn't go there more often, and not like he wouldn't
have his brother right beside him.  But if that's how you feel, we won't."

"What brought on the domestic urge?"

"Too much time alone in hyperspace to think.  I got to thinking about it on
the last visit to Corellia, seeing Marni all big and holding Astri's new
one.  Been thinking about it ever since."

"Han, if we lived in the household, I'd say yes in a heartbeat.  But I can't
make a fifteen year commitment to live on Corellia, until he was old enough
for Jedi training.  Can you understand?"

"I understand, Luke.  It's all right.  Maybe in a couple years when you get
enough teachers to take a sabbatical, we can discuss it again?
Maybe the techs will have that ovum denucleation procedure down pat and a
son could be both of ours instead of yours and Astri's or mine and Marni's."

"I love you.  Force, I love you."  Luke kissed him fiercely and reached
under the pillow for the package.  "Since you won't let this pass, let's see
where we are next year.  What's a Renewal for if not to review where we've
been and where we're going?"

"Got it in one, kid.  I have something for you, too."  He reached under his
pillow.

The packages were identical.  Only the paper differed.

"To ten years.  I hope you like it," Luke said, nonplussed at the
coincidence.

"Ten years."  They traded packages.  At a touch, the cunningly folded paper
fanned away.  "You had Astri wrap it."  Han's voice held complete assurance.

"So did you."

The packages held books.  Actual paper books, such as Luke had seen
very few times in his life.  His father had owned a dozen, mostly ancient,
and preserved in a liquid nitrogen enviroment, only readable by computer.
The one he held was new.  He opened it to find heavy laid paper, creamy
under his touch, with the first and last ones decorated in a marbled
fan-pattern.  The handwriting on the pages was clear and lovely.  It even
had a distinctive smell.

"Not just Astri, but Hend was in on this too," Han commented looking over
his own.  "What did you promise Elka?"

"Probably the same thing you did."  Luke looked at the poetry in the
book.  Slowly drawn in, he read more and more swiftly, engrossed.  Too soon,
he was at the end of the slim volume, aroused and romantic.  Han was close
to finished and he looked up, slightly flushed from his reading, and
half-holding his breath.

"Han, this is just beautiful.  Did you dictate it?  I like the first part:
                 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,
                 For your love is better than wine.
                 The smell of you is like rich resins
                 and I breathe your name like sweet perfume.
                 I shall take you with me and bring you joy,
                 and you shall remember my love more than brandy."
Luke shot him a sidelong glance.  "So very Corellian."

Han teetered on the brink of anger and hilarity.  The words Luke had just
read him were almost identical to the first words in his book.  He finally
decided to laugh.  And he laughed loud and long and hard.
"You--you--you asked Lissa to help, didn't you?" he gasped.

"Yes.  Why?"

"The next part goes--goes like this:
                 My beloved is like a Flamepetal among the trees.
                 I sat beneath his shadow in the heat of the day
                 and the flowers were sweet to smell.
                 He brought me to his house
                 and his sign and sigil on my heart is love.
                 Stay me with drink, refresh me with food
                 for I am weak from love."

"Exactly.  She wrote us both the same poem!"  They both collapsed
into laughter.  "Oh, Lissa!"  Luke gasped, after a while, and sent Han off
again.

Lightheaded, ribs aching, the men looked at each other, and Han leaned over
and kissed Luke solidly.  They became more intense.  Luke broke for a moment
and carefully tucked the books under a pillow before returning to his lover.

"Laughing like that always turns me on," he whispered as he came in
for another kiss.

"Wish I'd known that sooner.  I don't think I've ever seen you laugh that
hard."  Han was more than receptive to the busy caresses, and added a few of
his own as he trailed his lips down his mate's chest.

"Mmm, see what you can do about it.  Ah, kisses better than wine..."
Han's mouth enclosed him and thought was lost.

They drowsed in each other's arms until the late afternoon sun
trailed across the bed, orange and heavy.

"Hungry?" Luke asked sleepily.  Han nodded without opening his eyes.

This time, Luke rose and programmed the foodsynth.  He had taken
the time to prepare a very special menu for this evening.  He punched it in
and then carried the heavy tray back to the bed.  Han had sat up and was
reading again.

"Try this," Luke said, offering a piece of the flatbread.  Han took it
from his fingers with sharp teeth.

"Sheni spice," he commented.

"Here."  A fried tidbit hovered near his mouth.

"That will be a fliry."  Han took this bite too.  "Gonna hand-feed me
all the legendary Corellian aphrodesiacs you could program, hunh kid?"  He
pulled each finger into his mouth, licking away the salty taste of the
shellfish.

"What better for a pair of legends like us?  Here, it will get cold
if we play too long.  And I'm hungry too."  He handed Han his plate
and addressed himself to his own meal.  "Do you know that there is a
running debate at Rudrig University as to whether Luke Skywalker is
an actual person or," he paused to recall the exact phrase, "merely a
mytho-poetic manifestation of a heroic archetype necessitated by war?
It might be fun to sit in on the symposium."

"Used to have friends on Rudrig.  You really wanna go?" Han asked
around mouthfuls of the carefully marinated sliced fungi.

"Maybe next month.  Introduce myself to the person who thinks I'm not real."
Luke speared a stalk of pinkish vegetable and nibbled at it.  "I really
want more time with you.  This year has been horrible.  I mean, I've had
great success moving the academy, and building the house, but you haven't
been here.  That leaves me feeling like part of myself is missing."

"I know, kid.  You know, I sleep in a thermal bag in my office half the time
so I don't have to go home to a dark apartment and an empty bed?  I miss
you.  This is ridiculous.  I can't take anymore of it."

"So, what do we do?"

"You could move back to Coruscant with me.  That's not the best idea
I've had."

"I can't give up the Academy."

"I know.  Like I said, not my best idea.  I could move here.  You're
not a self-sufficient colony yet, and Chewie and I could do your supply
hops.  Lets me space, and see you."

"I like it, but what about the Ship Design?"

"I can send my work by the Stellnet, and someone else will have to test the
prototypes.  Small sacrifice to be with you."

"Any other ideas?"

"We move into your father's palace, you start wearing capes and I get to be
a kept man."

"Try again."

"We move to Corellia and make babies with the girls.  I handle shipping
logistics for the Distillery, and you teach there."

"And how long before we both go crazy from Elka meddling?"

"I give it three weeks.  She'll be waking us each morning and
wanting to know whether we slept well, and if the sex was good."

Somewhere in the discussion, they finished dinner.  Luke insisted on
clearing the dishes, only to return with the dessert.

"You're trying to kill me, kid.  You know what happened last time I ate
that."  Han looked at the dessert and groaned.  The foodsynth had produced a
layered confection of choca, cream, flinil, more cream, and
zargli topped with more cream.

"The choca reputedly acts as an erection inducer," Luke began, digging his
spoon into the parfait, and bringing up a sample of all the layers.  He
addressed the choca layer, licking it off the spoon.  "The red flinil
supposedly acts as an orgasm delayer."  He licked the flinil layer from his
spoon.  "The zargli is a mild stimulant."  This time Luke found his hand
caught and his open mouth and tongue covered by his mate's.

"Stick that tongue out again," Han warned, releasing his lips, "and you
won't get it back."

"That is the idea."  Luke licked the final smear of cream from the spoon and
dipped it back into his dessert.

"Kid, you're pushing--" Han got the spoon full of dessert in the middle of
his sentence.  He swallowed.  "That's good.  If you're up for it, I'm up for
it."

"That is the idea," Luke repeated, and stopped teasing in order to finish
eating.

Han ran the dishes through the recycler while Luke looked through his book
again.

"I like this, even if Lissa played a trick on us."

"That's my family.  Read me some more?"  Han stretched out on the bed, and
rested his head on Luke's bare thigh.

"Taking up where we left off...  Oh, wait.  This is yours.  It's a bit
different.  'Your name flows through my mouth like the best wine.'"
He skimmed.  "The rest is the same.  Taking back up:
                 Stay me with drink, refresh me with food
                 for I am weak from love.
                 His left arm is under me,
                 And his right encircles me.
                 The voice of my beloved!
                 He spoke and said to me,
                 Rise up, my love, and come away,
                 For Winter is gone, the ice and rain are over
                 The flowers bloom, the birds sing.
                 The lina produces her early berries,
                 the vines show their fruit.
                 Arise and come away.

                 By night, in my bed,
                 I searched for the one my heart loves.
                 I looked for him and didn't find him.
                 I rose and went about the city,
                 seeking in all of its streets.
                 The patrols found me,
                 I asked them, 'Have you seen the one
                 my heart loves?'
                 I had just passed them when
                 I found him.
                 I held him and would not let him go
                 until I brought him into my father's house,
                 and into the bed where my mother bore me.

                 Who comes out of the wilds riding the vapor,
                 Smelling of Spice and resins?
                 See his bed, the bed that sixty men cannot encircle,
                 of rich wood with pillars of silver."

"Don't tell me you told Lissa about this monstrosity,"
Han interjected when Luke paused for breath.  He
planted a kiss on the inside of the leg under
his head, feeling the first warmth from the dessert
beginning to inspire him.  "Finish quick, kid."

                 "My beloved is tanned and handsome,
                 the finest of ten thousand.
                 His head is like pure gold,
                 His hair is dark and shaggy.
                 His eyes are as clear as the gulls by the shore,
                 set like jewels in his head.
                 His cheeks are beds of spice
                 and his lips like flamepetals
                 that drip sweet spice.
                 His arms are like srine,
                 set with flamegems.
                 His body, like polished g'kal wood,
                 Is decorated with crystlyx.
                 His legs are pillars of marble chased with srine.
                 His c'lket is like the mightiest tree of the forest.
                 His mouth is very sweet
                 And everything about him thrills me.

                 Place me on your heart like a seal.
                 Keep me close at hand like a signet ring.
                 Love is stronger than death,
                 and jealousy deeper than the grave.
                 Love is a blazing fire that all the
                 waters of Corellia cannot quench."

"Oh, that Lissa.  Quench me already."

"Dinner too much for you, pirate?"

"Nah, just an appetizer.  You're the main course."

"Quickly then.  The moons are starting to rise, and Chewie will be here
soon.  Just...don't yell timber?"

They made hasty love amid the laughter, sweet but rushed, ending with a kiss
and a promise for later.

Chewbacca landed the Falcon on the pad as the two men stepped out the door.
The trio walked to the small grove that Luke had cleared a little way from
the house.

They stood facing each other as all three moons, and Yavin itself hung low
above them, framed by the trees.  Chewie stood to the side, the only witness
to the simple renewal.

As he had ten years before, and every year since, Han repeated
the words of the Bonding, "I claim you, Luke, as mine.  At my
side, in my heart, forever."

"I claim you, Han, as mine.  At my side, in my heart, forever."
Luke felt his breath catch, as it always did, at the deep
commitment behind the simple words.

They kissed, sealing the promises.  As it grew lengthy,  Chewbacca put in,
*Would you like to take that inside?*

They broke apart, and laughed at the wookiee.

*It is good to see you happy, young one.  You should not be separated from
your mate.*

"Chewie, how do you feel about relocating to Yavin, so I can have this guy
all the time?" Luke asked as they walked back to the house.

*I wondered if you would ever ask.*
 

-end-