I feel home, and that's just what I feel....

[motherofresistance]

Who: Leai and Gray!Ben
Where: Leia's quarters
When: A little while after this thread
What: Leia has a special gift for Ben
Warnings: Probably none other than family feels

It wasn't often Leia specifically asked Ben to come to her quarters. Mostly because it was rarely necessary; it was easy enough for them to find each other on the base if they needed or wanted to. Sometimes Ben would come to her, sometimes she to him, but it was seldom in either of their own rooms. The request hadn't been anything especially urgent; just 'if he had time' that evening, and if not, she'd said that was fine. They could always find another night.

But the unusual nature of the request would likely make it stand out. As would the emotions drifting through the Force when it was made. Warmth, love, hints of excitement and an odd sort of nostalgia... What exactly was Leia planning? There was only one way to find out...

Comments

[greyorder]

"Alderaan, its' royalty, the grandparents I could have had - when I was growing up, I could never truly make any of it real in my mind. Uncle Luke was concerned I lacked empathy." Which had stung, deeply, far more than Luke could have intended. "Such things were too vaguely described and poorly defined for me to picture. I think I have something of a better grasp now, between my own personal studies and your talking to me, but... to my generation, all that is Alderaanian is as a ghost."

His smile was small, sad, one he rarely shows. Nostalgia and what-could-be were things he wasn't fond of. The taste was bittersweet as ever. "I always envied those with grandparents, growing up. Doubtless I would have enlisted your mother in helping me smuggle in animals if I could have. Your father would have liked Tom-Tom, though; that tauntaun has always been friendly to every other living creature, and it wins people over, more often than not." He looked at his mother, brow furrowing. He knew that some cultures took meals seriously, but- "There's a proper and improper way to serve tea?" he asked, before he could censor himself.

"Appearances being important as they are to some, I think I would have 'accidentally' ruined that woman's dress had she been in my presence, as well. Having wealth is one thing, but to revel in it is nothing I would want to be associated with. Your aunts could dress me up to the nines and try to do something with my hair to make my huge ears less apparent, and I would undo it all with my mouth and my actions." Ben did grin a bit more genuinely at that, though. There was a playful side to him, mostly buried these days, that enjoyed seeing people react to things he did. It was a dangerous thing to like given the company he'd been keeping in the First Order, but something within him chafed under too many rules and regulations. "You need not worry about their reactions to Father. They would be too busy with whoever I had offended that week to remember he existed."

He swallowed thickly, pushing back the desire to ask what became of House Panteer. Likely they were gone or worse. Some things were not meant to be pried into even when someone was offering the information up freely. "I take back everything I have ever thought about my parentage making romance complicated. The level of politics it sounds like went into such marriages is worse, and nothing I would have been able to stomach. Though I saw glimpses of that amongst Outer Rim worlds' nobility, I was blessedly free of participation. The only time anyone mentioned marriage to me was when they were discussing their own. Or when Father would visit, he would tease Master Luke about having found the perfect woman for him." Ben wasn't the only one who did things just to get a reaction, after all. Han had gone as far as introducing Master Luke to a very lovely young female Wookie and watching the ensuing awkwardness had made a young Ben glad, at the time, that Jedi weren't supposed to have romantic attachments.

"I'm fairly sure you would not have cared if they fainted, so long as you well and truly loved him. There is nothing in existence that could get between you and who you love, and for all Father's flaws, he is very much the same. And neither of you are the kind to bend to public opinion, so eventually, they would have had to get used to it."

A million years late, but just wanted to round these out.

[motherofresistance]

Now that was a kind of smile that Leia knew very well, even if it was unfamiliar on Ben. She returned one of her own. "I'm sure she would have, as her duties permitted," she said. "And Tom-Tom would likely end up having his own, specially cooled stable in one of the gardens; few places on Alderaan could really have been called balmy, but summers in Alderaa City still got warm enough that it'd be uncomfortable for a tauntaun."

"And a tea, in this case, doesn't refer to the drink," she said. "It refers to a light meal served about midway between lunch and dinner. It features tea, obviously, but also things like pastries, finger sandwiches, scones, seasonal fruits and nuts, or sometimes small servings of things like soup or quiche. Teas were typically smaller gatherings for friends and were considered less formal than something like a dinner party, but there was still an etiquette to them. They often had a theme, and a lot of planning could go into setting up the menu if you were hosting one; choosing what foods would go best with the tea you planned to serve, what was appropriate for the setting, the guests you were inviting, the time of year, and a dozen other factors. And of course if someone was invited to tea at the palace, it had to be a cut above, so my aunts made sure I knew how to be a good hostess."

The smile became a bit more mischievous for a moment. "Oh I'm sure they'd find time to be worried about both," she said. "Though one big scandal would likely keep them more occupied than a dozen small ones, and would probably have more interesting results."

She nodded her understanding of Ben's opinion on politically motivated marriages. "It's something I grew up around, so I understood the necessity of it," she said. "It's not entirely about politics and appearances though. Whoever would have married me would have become the next Viceroy of Alderaan; that was no small job even when one wasn't also trying to organize a rebellion. My choice wouldn't have been mine alone; I'd be choosing for all of Alderaan, and I'd have had to choose someone I thought was capable of ruling beside me. My people deserved that."

"But yes, I'm sure that they'd all have eventually come around," she said. "We might have disagreed on any number of things, but we all loved each other. Once they'd seen that I love your father just as much, they would have relented. It just might have taken some time for them to understand that."

((OOC: You don't have to feel the need to reply to this or the other PSL; I just wanted to clear this and the other tag out. :3))