Chapter 10

Awkward silence met Tendra's announcement, with Luke blushing red once more. Lando's mouth hung slightly open as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

But Tendra's drunken sobs continued and she couldn't answer, until Leia handed her a tissue and patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Maybe it would be best-" she started, but Lando cut her off.

"You voted for Luke?" he asked quietly.

"It's not what you think!" Tendra burst out. "I just… I was shopping and this woman asked me to be a part of the survey… I'd had a crush on Luke when I was younger and his name just… popped out! Besides, I didn't think you'd need my vote… you always have women lusting after you…"

"You're making it worse," Wes mumbled under his breath, wincing as Tendra turned steely eyes to him.

Lando said nothing, seemingly still absorbing the news that his wife had voted for another man as the galaxy's sexiest.

Tendra broke into the tension once more. "Lando, really. You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Yes, I once thought Luke was hot, but then I got to know him!"

Some of the nervous tension was broken as Wes let out a loud guffaw and even Han seemed to be having a hard time not laughing. Next to Mara, Luke's face burned even brighter. Realizing how she must have sounded, Tendra turned to him. "Luke, I'm sorry. It's not that you're unattractive…. Because you're obviously very attractive…"

Lando finally spoke. "Okay, I agree with Wes. You're making it worse, Tendra."

"Look, it's just a dumb program on the HoloNet," Iella said from her seat in the back. "I think maybe it's time for us to turn it off and…"

"Welcome back to the 101 Sexiest Citizens of the NR!" Nabrina'vida crowed from the HoloNet.

"Too late," Hobbie remarked.

"We've counted down the 100 sexiest citizens of our fair Republic, and it's time to reveal your number one choice… The Sexiest of the Sexiest. But first, let's look back once more at our Top 100…"

"Thankfully this is almost over…" Luke whispered to Mara as the previous members of the list cycled through once more. "Though I think we could sneak out now and no one would notice…" Tendra and Lando were involved in a quiet conversation on their corner of the sofa and everyone else seemed to be paying them more attention than the HoloNet.

"…make it up to me when we get home," Lando said, his voice once again teasing and full of love for his wife.

"And how is that different from any other night?" Tendra teased voice a bit wobbly but filled with relief.

"Okay, more than we need to know," Han boomed out, slapping Lando on the back. "Now, look," he gestured to the HoloNet. "We're at the end of this torture fest."

Nabrina'vida was grinning widely at her audience, bouncing on her feet in anticipation. "So here we are… at number 1. The sexiest citizen of our Republic. He's the complete package… mysterious and aloof, strong and confident… the only one who could have clawed his way to the number one spot on our countdown…. You voted NR and your pick for Sexiest Citizen is….."

It seemed that everyone was holding their breath, Luke noted, looking around.

"…. BOBA FETT!"

"What?" Han practically dropped his bottle of ale and the room broke into a loud mess of chaos and disbelief.

"That Sarlaac smelling piece of vomit…"

"Fett?"

"Rigged voting from Mando fanboys….!"

The HoloNet played on, oblivious to the disturbance in the Solo household. Nabrina'vida wasn't done yet. "…the armor is part of his sex appeal, sure, but many have wondered just what is underneath…"

"That's it!" Luke said, standing and waving his hand towards the HoloNet unit, turning it off with the Force. "I can't take it anymore!"

The room broke into spontaneous applause, until Leia shushed everyone. "The kids are sleeping!"

Luke turned to Mara. "I'm sorry for the unnecessary use of the Force but…"

"Farmboy," she said, taking his hand and squeezing, "I'd say that was very necessary." She winked at him and allowed him to pull her up to stand with him. "Well, guys, I guess we're out of here."

Leia laughed. "I'm sure you have more interesting things to be doing."

"I'd say we all do," Han teased, slapping Luke on the back. "But first, how about using some of those Force powers to help pick up all these empty bottles of ale?"

"Don't listen to him," Leia said. "The party was for you. Get out of here."

"Bye Big Sis," Luke said, kissing her check and barely avoiding a swat. "Thanks for the party."

Mara paused at the door, and looked back at their friends with her familiar half smirk. "Thanks for the party guys…. But I think next year a firing squad might be somewhat less painful."

The door closed behind her and Luke to the sound of their friends laughing, apparently in full agreement.

xx

"Don't push me!" Jaina muttered as Jacen pushed her in front of him and Anakin.

"Hey, hey, what are you kids into?" Leia asked, looking at them suspiciously.

"Uh… nothing!" Jaina said. "Just… Well, could we use the comm.?"

"Who are you going to call?"

"We need to collect what's owed to us…" Jacen muttered before Jaina elbowed him in the ribs.

"Uncle Luke?" Anakin piped up over his brother, sounding more like he was asking a question than supplying an answer.

Leia looked at them, sizing them up. "You might wake him and Aunt Mara up," she said finally, but then grinned. "Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks!" the kids chorused and took off to towards the comm., relieved when their mother went into the kitchen to confer with Threepio.

They tapped in the numbers quickly and smiled widely when Talon Karrde answered their call.

"I figured I would hear from you three bright and early," he said.

"We just wanted to assure our winnings," Jaina said, the spokeswoman for the group.

"Yes, all three of you correctly bet on Boba Fett for the win…. I just can't help but wonder how you knew."

All three of the children flashed a smile that was far too much like their father's for Karrde's comfort. "Never mind," he said. "I'll have the credits to you by the end of the day."

"Good doing business with you," Jaina said, turning off the comm.. She turned to her brothers. "Do you think we should have told him how we knew?"

"That the show was a rerun? No way! I have plans for those credits. There's this great copper headed tree-lizard that I've had my eye on…"

"Hey, I wanted to buy spare parts for the Falcon!" Jaina cried, challenging her twin.

"The creds are going to be split three ways, right?" Anakin said, and realizing he wasn't heard over his older siblings he repeated himself. "RIGHT?"

xx

Talon Karrde sat at the comm. station for a moment, a small smirk playing at his lips. A slight footfall behind him bade him turn in his seat to accept the cup of caf Shada offered him.

"Our little winners, I take it?" Shada asked.

"Yes," Karrde said, giving her a shrewd look. "I have inkling, but do you know how they knew?"

Shada wrapped her robe tighter around her as she leaned against the comm. station. "We never did check the HoloNet listings," she said.

Karrde nodded, and then took a sip of his caf before placing it on the counter. "A rerun," he said, but he was smiling. "Those little brats."

xx

"Good morning," Mara murmured, running her foot up Luke's naked leg.

"A very good morning," Luke agreed, kissing her neck. "Happy anniversary, love."

"It's not our anniversary anymore," she corrected. "It's the morning after. Now we're not newlyweds, we're just an old married couple."

"But I like the sound of that," Luke said.

"You would," Mara teased. "This is how we should have spent last night… Alone, just you and me."

"Come on, you didn't have the least bit of fun hanging out with our friends?"

Mara was silent for a moment. "If pressed I might admit that I did… but only to you. But I certainly had more fun once we got back home," she said with a smirk, turning in his arms and propping herself up to look down at him.

"Me too." He grinned up at her. "It was quite a party, though… That countdown was interesting…"

"More like a waste of time," Mara said.

Luke squashed a smile. "Come on, you're not even pleased with your ranking? Number 3 out of the entire Galaxy? Very well deserved, I must say," he said, running a hand up her back, tickling lightly.

Mara rolled her eyes. "I thought that with all your Jedi Fangirls you'd be number 1."

"Well, thank you, my love. But I guess I just don't have what Fett has," he said with a grin.

"Oh, and what's that?" Mara asked.

"It's the allure of the Mandalorian Armor, Mara. No other man can compete with it."

xx

Tendra Calrissian snuggled closer to her husband, not quite wanting to get out of bed just yet.

"Happy, my sweet?" Landon asked her gently, twining a lock of her hair through his fingers.

"Very," Tendra smiled. "But I'm rather surprised that you haven't probed me further..." she paused.

"Verbally, I mean," she added with a smirk,

Lando chuckled for a moment before answering. "Why you voted for Luke?" he asked, and smiled. "Well, my dear, I don't blame you," he continued. "You're not the first woman to be swayed by the Skywalker charm. In fact, it was the reason I brought Luke with me when we met."

"You know, I'd always had a bit of a girlhood crush on Luke," she admitted, not daring to look up. "But then when I saw you I forgot all about it. I never gave it a thought again until I was asked to vote for the show. It was some time ago, and I thought it was funny."

Lando chuckled and pulled her closer. "And of course, you thought that your dashing husband wouldn't need your vote."

Tendra looked up and gave him a kiss. "Of course." She chuckled. "I love you, Lando."

Lando grinned. "Naturally." He leaned down for another kiss but was interrupted by the intrusive ring of the comm. "Of course," he muttered as he rolled over to answer it. Any other woman would have told him to ignore it and he would have had to pull the 'but it's business' card. But not Tendra, he thought with happiness as he clicked on the comm. unit. If he didn't answer it, than she would – and then chide him for it. She was as business-minded as any woman he had ever met. He liked that.

xx

"Hey, Corran, look at this." Mirax called her husband over to where she sat studying the morning news on the HoloNet. It was a tiny article, one most would miss if they were not looking for it, or, like her, they scanned every inch of the press every morning just in case there was something interesting buried under all the galactic news, political slander and celebrity gossip.

"Apology," Corran read from the small article over Mirax's shoulder. "The E-tainment Corporation would like to apologise regarding the HoloNet programme 101 Sexiest Citizens of the New Republic that ran last night. A clerical error in tabulating the votes incorrectly placed Han Solo at number ten. We would like to inform the public that General Solo's correct placing is number nine, and Prince Isolder of Hapes is placed at number ten."

"Unfortunately the mistake was not rectified for last night's repeat broadcast," Mirax finished for him. She looked up at her husband. "Perhaps we should let Han know? He did seem to have a bit of a complex about it."

Corran gave her a sly smile. "There's a time and a place for everything, Mirax," he replied. "I think we should save this for the right moment."

Mirax grinned. "Maybe I'll just tell Leia..." she mused to herself.

xx

Tycho and Winter Celchu sat in the kitchen of their modest apartment, drinking stim-free tea and chatting about floral arrangements. Or at least, Winter was nattering on and Tycho was listening politely.

"I wonder if anything interesting happened after we left last night?" Tycho asked eventually, when the subject of Dantooine roses had been exhausted.

A small crease formed between Winter's eyes. "Probably not," she said and shrugged.

Tycho mirrored her shrug, cast the thought from his mind and went back to his tea.

xx

"What time do you think this is?" Wedge ran a tired hand over his eyes as he spoke into the comm.

"Oh, come on, Wedge-cakes, I knew you were up," Wes' smooth voice came through the speakers, "what with your rugrats and all."

Wedge thought back darkly to when his girls had woken him from his sleep early that morning with demands for breakfast and amusement and introduced him to his hangover.

"You don't have to be so smug about it," he muttered. "But why are you comm-ing me? Why are you even up?" It was still relatively early in the morning, as least it would seem that way to people who had perhaps indulged a bit too much the night before.

Wes laughed, and Wedge had a feeling he'd been waiting to be asked that question. "Boss, I never went to sleep!"

From across the table, Iella gave him a disgusted look.

"I'm hanging up, Wes," Wedge warned him. He moved to switch off the comm. when through the speaker came sounds of slight scuffling, like someone grabbing the receiver from Wes.

"Hello, number 4," a suspiciously familiar voice purred through the comm.

Iella's eyes suddenly became very wide.

"Er...hello...Nabrina'vida," Wedge managed to stutter, utterly shocked. "So I guess Lando introduced you two after all."

"That's right," the Twi'lek replied, and laughed.

There was another scuffling sound as Wes grabbed the comm. back. "Nab and I had a nice friendly chat about the travesty of my placing," Wes told them.

"Very friendly, I'm sure," Iella cut in, loud enough for the comm. to pick it up. But a smile was forming at the corners of her mouth.

"I must say," the Twi'lek said, "I was eventually...persuaded to see things from his point of view."

"Well, I'm happy for you Wes," Wedge said tiredly. "But I'm sure you have other people to gloat over...I mean call."

"Ha ha," Wes answered, but didn't deny it. "In any case," he continued, "Nab and I plan to be busy for the rest of the day."

"Nab?" Iella mouthed to him and raised her eyebrows.

Wedge shook his head and smiled. "Bye Wes," he said over the comm. "Bye Nab," he added belatedly, just before he switched off the comm.

"That was surreal," Iella commented dryly.

"And we'll never hear the end of it," Wedge added. "And you never know, Nab might be attending our next party as Wes' other half."

Iella choked on her caf and laughed. "Gods help us all."

The comm. rang again and Wedge answered it with trepidation. "Yes?"

"Wedge!" a voice winged over the speakers.

"What is it Hobbie?" Wedge was beginning to wish he'd unplugged the comm.

"Have you heard from Wes? It's so unfair!"

Wedge sighed. "Isn't it just." He made a face at Iella. "Maybe you should take it up with Lando."

"I already have," Hobbie pouted. "It's just..."

Wedge half-tuned out, letting Hobbie talk and imputing 'I see' 'I know' and 'Of course,' at the correct intervals. Iella got up from the table and gave him a kiss on the temple.

"More caf?" she asked softly.

"Please," he answered. "I think I need it."

xx

Han Solo eyed his three children suspiciously. They were huddled in a corner, seated in a circle which seemed unusually like a conference; or whatever kids did instead of having conferences.

"What are they up to?" he asked his wife, who was pouring over briefings on her datapad.

Leia glanced up and studied her children, the shrugged and went back to her work. "I don't know," she answered. "They wanted to use to comm. earlier."

"To call who?" Han asked, his gaze still on the kids, who all seemed rather intense and conversing with each other rapidly.

Leia shrugged. "Something about 'collecting what was owed to them.' They wouldn't say anything more."

"And you didn't interrogate them?" Han was confused – it was unlike Leia to be so passive when it came to the schemes of the children.

"Who says I just don't want them to think they're getting away with it?" she looked up, her eyes twinkling mischievously. "Whatever it is."

Han gave her a crooked grin – that sounded more like his wife. "Collecting what is owed," he mused to himself. "Wonder what that could be."

"Of course, if it is anything monetary, it will have to be confiscated from them," Leia added, her eyes back on her datapad.

Han nodded, understanding. "So it is probably best not to punish them prematurely," he added, "but to...wait and see what they're up to."

"My thoughts exactly." Leia took a sip of caf and continued to study her datapad. Han sighed and got up to make himself another caf, sneaking in a choc-shot when he thought Leia wasn't looking.

"You know," he said as he sat down again. "That countdown thing. I think I really placed higher than Isolder. He probably bought his votes."

"Yeah," Leia agreed. "I think I really placed higher than Luke. It's just illogical to get the exact same vote count among billions."

"Yeah."

It was all the affirmation either of them needed.

xx

An alluring purple Twi'lek stands in front of her stage lights. "You've counted down the Sexiest Pilots and Sexiest Citizens with us. You've watched as we've counted down the Most Embarrassing Celebrity Moments…. But tune in now as we conduct our naughtiest countdown yet… 101 Most Shocking Celebrity Secrets…"

"Cut for the sound bite-" the Twi'lek's director shouts.

"Darth Vader is their father? WHO saw that one coming?"

"And again…. Action!"

Nabrina'vida gives a wide, engaging grin to her audience. "Tonight on E-Tainment. Don't miss it!"

xx

a/n: And there you have it-finally, the end! Thank you for all your support and kind comments. We hope you had as much fun reading this as we had writing it!