glow in the darkness (star wars | amilyn/leia)

[fiachairecht]

glow in the darkness. star wars sequels, amilyn/leia. on memories and keeping warm. 783w, rated t. for a prompt at fic_promptly.

Leia's bones are cold.

Realistically she knows that's probably not the case, but Echo Base seems bigger now in its emptiness, the remnants of the Resistance hardly enough to bring the base to life. Everything seems colder than she remembered, even with the fuel and blankets they've managed to scrape together.

And Amilyn isn't in their bed.

Leia rolls over into the empty space, blinking her eyes open slowly. "Amilyn?" she asks sleepily.

The woman in question is leaning against the transparisteel window, the pale purple of her hair and insulated sleepwear a strangely vibrant shadow against the ghostly white of the snowfall outside. "I'm fine," she says, but Leia knows her too well.

"Come back to bed, Ammi. You'll freeze out there," Amilyn turns, a reluctant smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Leia grins back at her, pats the thin mattress. "And I'll freeze in here."

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" She sounds just a little less tired as she crosses the room and slips back under the blanket, wrapping her arms around Leia and burying her face in the crook of her neck.

Leia frowns and kisses the top of her head. "Your nose is cold."

Amilyn laughs, her breath warm against Leia's skin. "Guess you'll just have to warm me up then, Princess."

Leia hugs her close, squirms until she can wedge her thigh between Amilyn's legs. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not letting you go anywhere again."

She means it lightly, but the memory of Crait is still far too close, those awful moments when she thought Amilyn too might slip through her fingers like so much stardust, and they both fall silent.

"What are you thinking about?" she finally asks, idly twirling one of Amilyn's curls around a finger.

Amilyn is quiet for a long moment, her breath so even Leia wonders if she's fallen back to sleep. But then she says, "It's summer back on Gatalenta, you know."

Leia makes a soft, questioning noise against Amilyn's temple. She hadn't known, but she's unsurprised Amilyn knows. She carries Gatalenta's seasons on her wrists in intricate silver bracelets that she's offered to make Leia the Alderaanian equivalent of more than once, and Leia knows more than most that part of Amilyn's heart remains under those stars no matter where war takes them.

"Do you remember what summer was like there?" Amilyn continues, and Leia smiles.

She remembers both of their Gatalentan summers well, sun-drenched days when there seemed endless possibilities for teenaged legislators and unnaturally aged war veterans alike. "The suns never set," she says. "You made me beautiful iced teas, and we would climb the trees in the garden. You dyed Ben's hair pink to match the twilight when I wouldn't let you do mine."

Leia stops, breath caught in her throat at the reminder of Ben. Of how lost he had felt the last time she had reached out to him in the Force.

"Hey, none of that," Amilyn murmurs, gently rubbing her back. "It's okay. I was just thinking ... it's summer on Hoth now, too. And ..."

She trails off, but Leia imagines well enough where her thoughts were going. There's a sort of unnatural peace that comes with the near-constant blizzards, a sort of peace that has nothing to do with the tranquility they found on Gatalenta. "Hey yourself," she says, tilting Amilyn's chin up to press a warm kiss to her lips. "Surely if there's one thing this galaxy has taught us it's that summer is a relative concept."

Amilyn smiles against her lips. "I know," she says. "I just ... I'd hoped that by now—"

Leia silences her with another kiss, more insistent this time. Amilyn's mind is a beautiful thing, but neither of them can afford for her to get lost in it now. They're pressed so closely together that Leia can feel Amilyn's heartbeat speed up as she trails her hand over her hip, palms the side of her breast.

"I know, too," she says, when the need for air forces them to break the kiss. "We're not done yet, not by a long shot. But we're still here."

Amilyn's cheeks are flushed pink as the twilight, and there's a sparkle in her eyes that lifts Leia's heart. "And it's still summer?" she asks, as her hand creeps between their bodies, as her fingertips slip beneath Leia's waistband.

Leia starts at the chill, but as Amilyn's fingers slide lower to meet Leia's own heat, she finds that the contrast in temperatures is actually quite pleasant.

"And it's still summer," she confirms breathlessly, before claiming Amilyn's lips once more.

Neither of them have to worry much about being cold after that.