Story Challenge #16: 22nd January 2003
A five-minute challenge, starting with "Changing--"

Outfits
A SW 5-minute ficlet by Morgan D.

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"Changing into a whore's clothes won't make your performance any more professional once you take them out."

When Luke had heard that for the first time — while he and Han were putting stormtrooper armours on so they could find a way to escape the Death Star —, he had taken it as another of Han's teasing remarks to get him angry, or embarrassed, or whatever were Han's goals then. Apparently, there was more to it than that.

"Is that a Corellian proverb?" he asked Lando, who had just uttered those very same words.

"A token of the ancient Corellians' wisdom," Lando nodded. "Beautiful Alderaanian ladies would do better listening to it."

"And sly Corellian gentlemen would do better listening to their own proverbs and not judging beautiful Alderaanian ladies by their appearance," Leia retorted, unfolding Boushh's garments and laying them on the couch of Obi-Wan Kenobi's old home. "This is hardly my first mission undercover."

Her dry tone toward Lando had gradually smoothed in the last weeks, and now she answered to his flirtatious, patronising tone with witty ripostes instead of the ruthless coldness from the first days. That Lando felt comfortable enough to use a proverb about whores to nag her was surely a sign that things between them were infinitely better.

Luke couldn't bring himself to harbour ill feelings against him, even after being informed of his part in Han's fate in Bespin. The first time he had seen Lando was when the gambler helped his battered, mutilated body inside the Millennium Falcon, away from the Cloud City, from Vader, and from all those things he didn't want to think about now. The Lando that Luke had met was not a traitor, but a repentant man trying to atone for his error. Besides, in Luke's mind, it was ultimately up to Han to forgive him or not.

Han...

Luke glanced at one of the crates lying on the dusty floor, the one where his Jedi outfit waited to be worn for the first time. What would Han say when he saw him in those? The proverb sounded too truthful in his case: he was not a Jedi yet. When Lando made him omit the word 'apprentice' in his message for Jabba to be sent by the droids, Luke had understood his argument — a mere student would not make any impression on the Hutt —, but had felt uneasy about it all the same. It was a lie, period. Dressing up like a full-fledged Jedi wouldn't make him any less an apprentice.

And Han would see it. Luke had no doubt in his mind about that. Han would see right through the pretentious façade and find the same clueless farm boy that used to make him smirk... and moan...

Leia started rearranging her hair to better accommodate it inside Boushh's helmet. Lando stood there, watching her every move, apparently unaware that he was holding his breath.

Luke smiled sadly, chiding himself for his thoughts. Those times were gone. It was stupid to wonder about Han's reaction when they met again. Han would not see him at all.

He would only see her.

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