Walking the earth with eyes turned skywards ...

[twelve_not_fourteen]

A shame that he isn't moving all that slow and that he can't read her thoughts. If he was to know she was in a hurry - he'd have a lazy smile on his lips and Han would have to make some mention of her wanting to rush into getting him alone.

Instead, she's treated to what it's like to walk through a dingy alley with Han Solo. If she were to look carefully at his face, it would be a bit hard to read. He has a look on it that seems to be looking at everything at once or possibly nothing at all.

He, also, might be a tad more quiet now than he was inside the cantina. Not to the point of being unfriendly or in a way that suggests he doesn't want to talk anymore, but ... he does seem slightly different now.

"My ship is still half taken apart." He reminds her with a half hearted shrug. "I can't go anywhere in a hurry."

Comments

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Well now - this is quite the surprise. Was fragile masculinity just not a thing in this sector of space or did Han just not have it? Either way, she's impressed and kind of delighted.

She shifts now that she's the big spoon and slides her arm around his waist. Pressing a kiss to his shoulder, she then murmurs, "You're not like most men I've met." Knowing a woman less than 12 hours and letting her be the big spoon? That's not usual. At least not in her experience.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

There was the chance that this young man, who didn’t have a lot of real and lasting connections with others was afraid - even now - to lose this one. He’d deny it. Perhaps not even recognize it in himself. It’s there, though. It was definitely part of him.

Having said that, Han isn’t afraid of strong women. He learned at a young age that it’s as important a trait in a female as it is in a male. You couldn’t grow up in the conditions on the Traders Luck without being tough ...

“Is that a problem?” Han asks with a touch more sincerity than she might have expected. He closes his eyes and soaks up all the ways that her skin pressed against his. “I’m not sure I could be like them if I tried.”

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Carol closes her eyes now that the adrenaline and excitement from some good sex is slowly starting to leave her body. She suspects that Han is even more tired than her. "No, that's a good thing. I don't want you to be like them."

He was something interesting and different, which she believes is why she's been so drawn to him. There's a lot of layers there to get through, and he's been peeling some of them for her, but she's curious about the others.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han is very tired. From this evenings events, yes, but it’s more of that chronic tired that you find in people who are broke and down on their luck. His work doesn’t help either. He can adjust. He can hang in there, but you’d have to wonder what the long term effects are gonna be. He won’t be young forever.

His breathing starts to slow as he settles in with her. Carol is not the softest woman he’s ever curled up with, but all that strength she has is kind of exciting. To be close to something so unique makes you feel special by proxy. He’s gotta figure that he’ll sleep more deeply with a fellow military person that he knows can handle her business too.

“I like that you’re not like people I know either.”

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Then hopefully he can have one night of semi-decent sleep. Carol has a chronic tired of always moving and always fighting, which is different from a broke and down on their luck kind of tired. She definitely needs some rest, though.

"Mmm, good. I've been assuming I'm one-of-a-kind." Carol isn't always humble and usually defaults to some kind of joke even as she's drifting off to sleep. "Good night, Han."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

When you can crack the foundation of a building with a punch from your bare knuckles, you’re probably entitled to not be humble once in a while. You probably won’t hear anyone complaining about you - who would want to draw your ire? This scoundrel isn’t gonna cast the first stone, though. He’s not humble all the time.

He tries to answer her with a good night of his own, but it gets half interrupted by a yawn. If there’s a blanket around and it’s not that big of a deal, he’ll reach to pull it over the two of them.

It’s the first good rest that Han Solo has gotten in a very long time ...

[cheeseburgermarvel]

There is a blanket and Carol tugs it up a little higher behind her where he couldn't quite reach. It was cute of him to tuck them both in.

Han falls asleep first, but Carol is right behind him and slipping into that good, deep sleep. She didn't set any kind of alarm so hopefully he doesn't have any place he needs to be.

P.S. I will 100% get back to you about the Captain Marvel issues. I finished the first trade. I've just had a lot of balls in the air these last two weeks!

[twelve_not_fourteen]

It’s not as if this was the first time Han had disappeared on Chewbacca. He was, as far as the Wookiee could tell, a difficult human to keep track of - especially when he didn’t want to be located.

When he’d returned to the cantina and asked around to enough of the patrons to realize his pal had left the bar with woman ... he had a feeling he knew what his Captain was up to. Moreover, he supported it. Han could be moody and he was always easier to deal with for a while after he got a chance to ‘unwind’. It miffed him a little that Solo was skulking off while their ship was half torn apart, but sometimes these opportunities have a limited window.

He understood it. Waited an hour or so to see if Han was going to be quick and then, hulled up to sleep for the night. It was when he didn’t come back the next morning that Chewbacca thought he ought to start looking for Han.

Sometime into trying to track him down the next morning, he’d heard about the encounter with a few upstarts that considered themselves rivals. That was ... sort of troubling, but not entirely uncommon an occurance for Han. His partner had been dealing with people who wanted to kill him a lot longer than the two of them had known each other. There were some odd discriptions that concerned him a lot. Humans being slammed into buildings and fire that came, not out of a blaster, but from someone’s bare hands.

Mulling over the details, it seemed like kind of a tall tale. And smugglers were known to exaggerate at times. It was just weird enough to make him wonder if any of it was true ...

Chewbacca ran back to the Bria to grab his bowcaster and began using all of the tracking skills (which he’d been honing over almost two-hundred years) to find his friend.

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Admittedly Carol hadn't been thinking about what Han's partner may have been doing last night or if he know where Han was. She had been a little distracted and preoccupied.

So distracted and preoccupied that she slept soundly through the night and into the morning. She woke into one of those half-awake states and glances over at the back of her partner. It's still warm and lazy and comfortable so she closes her eyes again and while is mostly awake, starts floating back to sleep.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Considering that she didn’t know he had a partner? She’s excused. Han knew he had a partner and knew that he ought to check in with him, but he didn’t. It pressed for an explaination, he too would claim being distracted.

What a distraction it was. What a distraction it continues to be. He’s still enjoying the comfort of deep sleep. Hardly stirring. Lightly breathing. If not for the fact that he was as warm as he was supposed to be, he could worry someone with that kind of sleep. It’s a testament to how comfortable he feels around Carol that he can get like this. He might even admit as much if he was conscious.

A protective Wookiee continues to head through the spaceport. A mix of sleuthing and hunting guiding him ever closer to his friend. When he finds Harrison, the alien debates how best to attempt to get on the ship, with a part of him strongly considering banging on the hull and howling as loud as he could.

He circles in. Backs off. Gets closer. Backs away again. As far as Chewie can tell, the ship is cold. It would take a least a few minutes to warm up whatever engines it was working with, he presumes, but that didn’t mean it was defenseless - hence the cautious approach. He realizes that his concern was warranted when a proximity alarm squeals to life ...

[cheeseburgermarvel]

The loudness of the proximity alarm is enough to completely snap her out of her half-sleeping state. She's up nearly immediately, tossing the body off her and grabbing some clothes just in case she has to kick someone's ass.

Moving to the hallway, she flicks on one of her view screens and sees...like a giant bear on its hind legs? She'd clearly need to do more research into the species in this section of the galaxy. Phasing her clothes into her uniform, she punches the button to open the gang plank.

"Can I help you?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Waking up to the sound of an alarm isn’t exactly a unfamiliar sensation for Han. Being tossed, on the other hand, is. It’s the suddenness of it that surprises him more than anything. How easily she can just cast his weight off of her without any kind of struggle - meanwhile he’s left to land on the bed like a sack of jorgen fruit. He’s been brought out of sleep in more pleasant ways, but ... he’s also been brought out of sleep in more unpleasant ways too.

He hears Carol head out of the cabin in a hurry to see what the fuss is about and then, while his sleep fuzzy mind starts to become more alert, it dawns on him that maybe their alarm could be Chewbacca looking for him. And then he, too, is springing out of bed and throwing on his pants in a hurry.

“Rhaaarrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhh” Chewie says, answering Carols question in a tone that is not especially friendly or threatening. It’s then followed by a short whine and a few barks.

[cheeseburgermarvel]

She'll maybe apologize to him later for that unceremonious wake up. When alarms go off in her ship she kind of gets a singular focus.

At the moment she's at a loss to do with her visitor. He isn't acting or speaking aggressively, but he does have a hell of a weapon on him. Then it dawns on her that he could possibly be looking for Han.

She hears him approach and she gestures to the large, fuzzy creature. "Friend of yous?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han steps toward the ramp half dressed. A tuft of his wavy hair sticking up in the back. His eyes still adjusting to all the light. It’s not the kind of look that impresses anyone, but it certainly doesn’t impress an agitated co-pilot.

“Hey Chewie I was -“

Captain Solo gets interrupted by a string of grunts that sound a lot more annoyed than the tone that the Wookiee was using with Carol.

“I know the ship was torn apart, but we agreed to take a break.” Han says folding his arms across his chest in (slight) defiance. “I was gonna come back when I woke up ...”

Chewbacca woofs at Han in such a way that even someone unfamiliar with his language could tell that the tall alien was not impressed with that excuse. The young Corellian glares at him, gestures toward Carol with a short wave and says, “we can have this discussion later.”

Solo runs a hand through his hair and murmurs a quick introduction before the arguing can get out of hand.

“Chewbacca, this is Carol. Carol, this is my partner, Chewbacca.”

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Carol watches the exchange between them. Even though she doesn't speak whatever the furry thing speaks, she can tell that he's not entirely pleased with Han. Which, well, if they're partners and he didn't check in, she can kind of understand.

"Hi there," she says after being introduced. Hopefully Harrison could pick up the language sooner rather than later so he could translate the speech.

Carol glances back at Han. "So are you leaving with him? Or should I invite him in?" She'd certainly like for Han to stick around, but for all she knows Chewbacca could be telling him that their ship is on fire.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Han has a look on his face that seems to say 'uhhhhh'. Despite the fact that he has a partner that is constantly looking out for him, it doesn't seem as if he had planned for this moment at all.

... which then changes over to a sort of faint smile when she suggests that Chewie could come up. She must like him if she's willing to meet his friend, right?

"Well, I don't know that it's fair to put you on the spot like this ..."

Chewbacca snorts and woofs a short comeback that gets translated by Harrison as 'you put her on the spot, Han.' Han seems bewildered by the fact that her ship can act like a translator.

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Carol lets out a laugh at that. "Chewbacca, come on board." She really needed to take a shower but it seemed weird to just make the guy - she's assuming Chewbacca is a male, though she knows she shouldn't assume - wait outside while they cleaned up.

She gives him a 'come on' gesture as she turns to head back into the ship. "I like your friend's style," she says to Han while she waits for the furry creature to make his way up and in. Then Carol hits the button to close up the ship.

"I've got some food in the galley, if you're hungry."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Chewbacca doesn't hesitate to follow when he's been invited. He's figured out that Han seems to be relatively trusting of this person - and he was often stingy with how he offered his trust to others - but he likes to look after Han. They both end up in a lot less trouble when he is.

Meanwhile, if the young Corellian was embarrassed at being half dressed in front of either of them, he's not showing it. It's one thing to be confident behind closed doors around a person who probably won't reject you, but it's another thing to be at ease walking around someone else's ship like that.

"His style?" Han says glancing over at the wookiee, who looks like he always does to him, with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Overly protective or favoring powerful weapons?"

Chewbacca opens his mouth to respond to Han, when he's instantly and profoundly distracted by Carol's offer of food. He fires off a couple of barks that the ship translates to 'I am pretty hungry'.

[cheeseburgermarvel]

"The favoring powerful weapons and calling it how it is," she replies before gesturing down the hall to lead the two of them to the galley. It's a quick trip and Han should remember it from the night before.

Carol points to a couple of places where there's food stashed. "I'm not sure what you like to eat, but help yourself. Reasonably." She wasn't trying to be inhospitable but she did consume a lot of calories every day and she would prefer not having to rustle up some food on this planet before shipping out.

And now she's not sure what to do. Her plans for the morning had been to coax another round out of Han and take a shower - possibly at the same time, if he was willing - but now they were just three people standing in her galley.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

For Chewbacca, who always had a big appetite himself and didn’t exactly concern himself with what kind of quantities an average human eats, it doesn’t occur to him that she has a lot of food around. Han notices, though. It’s a lot for one human to have on hand, but that doesn’t tell him anything for certain. She might be meeting up with the rest of her crew soon or recently dropped them off. Or maybe likes to have a lot for storage (if it’s non-perishable).

No. It doesn’t tell him anything, but it does make him wonder ...

“Reasonably means make it a snack, Chewie. Not try to sate an endless Wookiee hunger.”

It’s a demand and the choice of words might have offended some, but it doesn’t seem to bother the tall fuzzy sentient. He’s either a lot more interested in the food or he doesn’t take what Han is saying very seriously. The human, meanwhile, is trying to think of a way to buy him and Carol a little bit more alone time - because he similar expection for the morning.

“Listen, I need you to do me a favor.” Han begins, after taking a moment to think of something. Chewie is sniffing a box of closed breakfast cereal, but he casts an inquisitive glance at his partner. “I’ll give you the credits for them, but I want you to pick up two datapads that can handle astrogation data. This region of space isn’t on any of her charts, but we already have it mapped out pretty well.”

Chewbacca seems to be mulling over the thought of that. “Are you sure that’s a good idea” is ultimately what the ship translates back as a reply to a string of barks and yips.

“She saved my life about an hour into knowing me. So I trust her and I want to return the favor.”

[cheeseburgermarvel]

He's not wrong in that some of the quantity is for storage and the potential to bring on more crew. But there is also a lot of food because she just consumes a lot of it. If he's still around for breakfast he'll see that firsthand.

She does go and grab a pouch of vacuum sealed fruit and starts munching on that while Han and Chewie interact. Her eyes widen when Han asks him to go gather the data pads. She isn't sure if his intention is to get themselves some more time alone or that he is going to follow through on his promise, but she's happy either way.

"Thank you," she chimes in before gesturing to the cereal. "You can have that whole box if you want it."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

It’s this scoundrel’s intention to kill two birds with one stone.

A necessity for him to think that way, really. More often than not, he doesn’t have a lot of stones to throw. Or he’s trying to make due with a twig instead. It’s probably the thing that most clearly separates Han from Carol, besides the special powers. She’s a woman that has resources. (Just look at the way her ship is outfitted!) He’s gotta beg, borrow and steal to get by.

Chewbacca’s blue eyes look over at Carol's. It’s obvious that she’s different then the usual women that his partner often meets, but he can’t figure out how. She seems nice, at least. Offering him a box of food, weirdly shaped and smelling as it is, buys a lot of goodwill with him.

Chewie woofs out his thought. A brief pause, then the ship offers its translation. “I can do that.”

“Good. Let me go get the credit tab.”

It requires Han to leave the galley, because in hastily throwing on a pair of pants, he didn’t think to grab his wallet or much of anything else. Eager to get his partner off to the task, he goes directly back to the bedroom to fetch the money and bring it back.

It still leaves Chewbacca and Carol alone for a minute or so while the he’s doing that. There are a lot of things the Wookiee considers asking or telling her while they’re sitting, but in the end, he doesn’t say any of them.

[cheeseburgermarvel]

Carol gives the wookie a smile as she finishes chewing and swallowing the fruit in her mouth. "Thank you," she starts. "I really appreciate this. It's gonna save me a lot of time having to map out the space around here."

Yes, she could've just stood there in silence while Han was gone, but Carol felt like she needed to say something to break the silence. Plus she really did appreciate the gesture. It was some damn good luck that Han was going to be able to help her with her mission. It actually would free up some of her time if he happened to have some time to spare.

Without anything else productive to say, she shoves some more fruit into her mouth.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Wookiees, in general, are a more quiet people than humans. The silence isn’t meant to make her uncomfortable in the same way that Chewie isn’t bothered that Carol wants to say something.

He speaks, then they wait for him to be understood.

“Your people must think of you as very skilled. Or you are very brave. Uncharted space travel is very dangerous.” There’s a thoughtful pause and then, he offers her this observation. “He wants to protect you.”

[cheeseburgermarvel]

"A little of both, I think. I'm kind of awesome." And sometimes lacking in humility.

Though Chewie's follow up statement makes her pause on her way to grab more fruit. Sure, she had gathered that Han liked her, but wanting to protect her? Was that...wow. Maybe he didn't even consciously realize that was why he was doing it.

Normally she'd make a crack about not needing protecting, but she wasn't done processing that yet. "Oh. That's. That's really nice of him."