KAYLIRA TRAMINO

Over the next few days, Kaylira divided her time with packing their things, working on the ship and working on Artoo, putting her lightsaber project to the side. She didn’t know if Luke would tell Leia and Han about the spark plug, because that would really heat things up, and Jedi weren’t known to do that purposely.

She didn’t want to live in fear, though, so she worked up the courage to ask him what he intended to do with the piece of machinery. He was standing on top of the Falcon making a few brief repairs, and she saw her chance.

“Luke. I need to talk to you,” she said, shivering. The temperature was starting to go down as the sun set.

He Force-jumped down gracefully. “What is it, Kayli? I mean, Kayl.”

What is it with him and that nickname? She thought. I left my life as Kayli behind long ago, when I left Tatooine. How could he know it?

“I, um…” She stumbled for the words. “I would like to know what you plan to do with the spark plug.”

Luke smiled. “It’s okay, Kayl. I would give almost anything to see Ben again. He was, well, a little like the father I never had to me.”

She was forgiven. “But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to give this back to you. Put it at the bottom of one of your bags. When you get to the planet’s surface, you can say that you found it while digging around for something. You’re good at keeping things from people, and it can be both a bad thing and a good one.”

He placed the chip in her hand. “Wow. So, you trust me, then.”

Then Luke did something she could never have predicted. He bent slightly and kissed her on the cheek. She thought about how warm and soft his lips felt, and her breathing sped up and her face flushed. She put a hand on the spot that he had kissed, shocked.

“Yes. I think I do,” he said, and then walked away into the ship.

LEIA ORGANA

Leia and Han were sitting in the cockpit, making repairs to the controls and wires. Or, at least, Han was. Leia wasn’t a guru for fixing machines, and was content to simply pass his tools to him as he would fiddle with a screw or reconnect a wire.

“Pass me the magnetizing screw, will you?” came Han’s muffled voice from underneath the dashboard.

“Which one is that?” She stared into the box of seemingly identical tools.

“The one with the sharp pointy thing at the end. Now can you please hurry up?” She passed it to him, and heard him mutter under his breath, “Where’s Chewy when I need him?”

“Hey!” Leia said, crossing her arms. “Well, I’m sorry, O Lord of the Tools, but he’s otherwise occupied trying to fix your ship at the moment.”

He scooted out to sit beside her. “Look, I’m sorry, Leia, but I’m just a little–”

“Stressed to fix your ship and ‘get the heck off this rock’, I know. Just reserve your snapping for the control panels, all right?”

“Okay.” Han kissed her, seemingly asking for forgiveness. She gave it by returning the kiss.

Suddenly, Luke walked in, and she could tell that he had just gone bug-eyed. She broke away from Han to look at him. Sometimes it didn’t seem like he was over her, but he was, being her brother and all. At least, that was her impression…

“Not interrupting anything, am I?” The answer to his question was fairly obvious: he was. “Leia, can I talk to you for a moment outside?”

“Of course.” She followed him outside. “What is it?”

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Now, it might seem a little strange, but… I think I’m in love with Kayl.”