Shadowplays



“Beautiful, you around?” Han ducked up the ramp and checked the lounge for his bondmate. Something
smelled good.

“In galley.” The accent, not lost over many years starhopping was as charming as the day he’d first heard it,
so many years ago.

“Smells great.”

“New pizza recipe. You left dough, so I finish up.” They had both developed a taste for the flatbread with spicy
 sauce and cheese in their time at Fandom High. “What have?”

“Reunion invitation from the New Republic brass. They want us to polish ourselves up and show up for the fifth
anniversary of the Victory at Yavin.”

Bagoas heard the sarcasm and countered with his own. “Oh, must show up as Princess’ favorite waiting servant. She
love me for that. Master Skywalker still mad?”

“Nah, Luke was never mad at you. He’s lucky to have her.”

“He glare at me all through wedding. Like I steal her with fanciness, even from under his nose at Jedi altar.”

“Tell you a secret, darlin’, he glares at everyone that way, including me. She’s his princess, his dream girl, and he
resents having to share her with the whole galaxy. She’s the same way about him.”

“They need vacation.”

Han laughed. “You’re right, they do. But with both of their ‘I gotta save the whole galaxy’ complexes, when are
they gonna take one?”

“We kidnap, take to pleasure planet and make spend week away from comm.”  

Han laughed.  “As if you can pry Leia out of her office with anything short of a bomb.”

“What else you have?” Bagoas turned away to get the pizza from the convection oven Han had installed a few years
back. It took a lot of space in the tiny galley, but it was worth it.

“Invitation to Fandom High’s Twentieth reunion from Phoebe and the rest of the Student Council crew. And a new holo.
 The latest Han Solo Holothriller is out.”

Bagoas giggled from the galley as he set the pizza on plates. “Love silly holos. We go reunion?”

The hopeful look was too much to resist. Han smiled and kissed him as he passed. “Of course, if you want.”

“I like very much. You grow into such handsome man, I want show you off to everyone.”

“And you are still beautiful despite all your dire predictions of looking bad.”

“Dance much, eat little, sleep well and much loved. Make everyone beautiful. And medicine help. What holo?”

“You’re gonna love this one. We gotta take it with us. Han Solo and the Brain-eaters of Death."

“Zombies?” Bagoas was incredulous, and froze where he was. “They make zombie movie?”

“Loosely--very loosely--based on Zombie Weekend.”

“And you let?” He still woke, after all these years, from nightmares he never mentioned, of watching Jayne and
Han go down under the mobs of the undead, of Frank forcing Han’s Last Resort poison on him.

“Why not? We make a .02% cut on every cube sold. And these things sell in the billions.”

“You finally rich, yet still live on ship.” He jumped at the new subject.

Han shrugged. “She’s my lady, and I’ll love her forever. Good pizza, darlin. What’d you change?”

“Out of mozzarella.”  Bagoas gave him a glare. “Use barv cheese. Also, out of pepperoni.”  This was punctuated
with another glare.  “Use lergu sausage. Leafhorns, lots of garlic. Not out of garlic.”

“It’s really good.  We’ll shop in the morning.  I’m guessing we’re out of nutrimix too?” After seeing the nod, Han
set the cube next to the player.  “You want to watch this silliness? It shouldn’t get gross until we’re done eating.”

“I watch. But you in trouble if have nightmares.” Bagoas cued up the cube while Han cleared and cycled the dishes.

“Always in trouble. But your kind of trouble is the best.” He flipped the play switch.

****

The end credits rolled and the men looked at each other, sides aching from laughing at all the flaws. Bagoas gasped for breath.

“These holo, very bad, Han. Make you look like great hero, make others look like heroes, but very, very stupid.”

“But you gotta admit, I love the way they end.” He quoted the end narration, which he always did himself. “Through all the
dangers, and all the adventures, let only one thing be said of the exploits of Han Solo: he did it all for love of Bagoas.”

“It have better ending than real zombie night. I not have crying jag in tub, you not go home alone.”

“I like the bit where I carry you home, and we both get a bath together.”

“We much too clean after battle.  Not filthy.  You so revolting after all the shooting, stabbing and wading.”  He shuddered.
 “I wondered, many time, why you came to Apple that night.  When told me you loved me, all made sense.”   He sighed
contentedly and said, as he always did, “The holos always end with us making love. I like.”

“I insisted. There’s not a dry seat in the theater. Everyone goes home and dreams of making love to one or the other of us.” 
Han leaned over for a kiss.  “Only I get to come home to the real thing.”  He stroked Bagoas’ hair, which was showing the
first few strands of white.

“What next title?”  Bagoas was almost bouncing with curiosity.

“Since this was a horror-thriller, the next is a romance-thriller.  I think they’re calling it <i>Journey</i>.  It’s about going to
Corellia, finding my name and tracking down my matriarch so we can Bond.”

“That take less than an hour, real-time.  How make holo?”

“Evil librarians, booby-trapped archive vaults, a journey to an old mystic to get the stolen clan-name translated, another long
 trip to find the matriarch, testing of our love before she Bonds us, all the usual stuff of a Romantic Quest.”

Bagoas laughed.  “I suppose they make us go through long, painful Bonding ritual?”  The real one had involved nothing more
than a pair of rings and a loaf of bread, and had taken exactly twenty-two minutes.

“Oh yeah, Old style hill clan where we get stripped naked, tied and blindfolded, and made to Walk the Path of Blood after
standing in a dead nerf.  Then we have to untie each other, and make love, there, in the blood, before we can have the
wedding feast.”

“That very gruesome ritual, Han.”  Bagoas made a revolted face.  “Saw many dawn sacrifices to the great god, but
still gruesome.”

“Yeah, it impresses the seriousness of the Bonding.   It is a blood contract and if either side is false, the other can take
payment in blood for that.  Besides, you, me, naked and blindfolded.  What’s not to love?  The audiences will eat it up.”

“We go to premiere this next time.”

“Anything you want.”  Han stood up and cracked his back.  “The Hero of the Spaceways is ready for bed, Beautiful.  You
want me to be all heroic or shall we just go?”

“You always my hero.  From first day you find me crying on bench.”  Bagoas gave a sly smile.

“All right.”  Han scooped him into his arms and carried him back to the cabin they had shared for years.  He paused at the door.

“Say.”

“Through all the dangers, and all the adventures, let only one thing be said of the exploits of Han Solo: he did it all for love of Bagoas.”

Bagoas palmed the door shut behind them.