My dear friend Karen over at SSB started a new challenge for us. A First Sentence Challenge, in fact. The way it works is, she writes the first sentence and we have to write the rest of the fic! (Since the first sentence is often the hardest part for me, I think I got the easier job, LOL.)

Her sentence was: "Secret rendezvous, she suddenly realized, were only fun when they stayed secret."

So here's the story!

Title: Celebration Confrontation

Author: kayladie

Rating: PG

Summary: Leia and Mara are having a slight disagreement.

Notes: I don't think this came out exactly the way that Karen might have been thinking, but what can you do when the muse takes control? That darn muse has been absent often enough lately that I'm not gonna fuss.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and I am making no money off this work.

Secret rendezvous, she suddenly realized, were only fun when they stayed secret. The sound of an unexpected opening door had Mara Jade Skywalker uncharacteristically fumbling as she scrambled to hide various sheets of flimsiplast with drawings and diagrams and lists scratched all over them. Her co-conspirator wasn't much more subtle, settling for shoving everything under a hastily raised cushion on the sofa.

By the time Luke came around the corner of their apartment into the living room, Mara and Leia were sitting on the sofa, drinking caf, innocent smiles plastered onto their faces.

"Luke! What are you doing home so early?" Mara asked, her voice only the slightest bit shrill. Well, Leia only winced a little anyway.

"What kind of question is that? You aren't happy to see your husband of three months, four days, three hours, and…" he quickly checked his chrono, "…twenty-seven seconds?"

Mara glared at him in exasperation. "You know that I am. I just thought you weren't going to be back until tonight. Leia and I were finally getting the chance for some girl bonding."

"Ooh, that's a scary thought," Luke muttered, then winced as two pillows from the sofa hit him with unerring accuracy from two different directions. "Kidding! I was kidding! Hello, sister dear. It's lovely to see you."

"You as well, brother dear," Leia said with a smirk that looked frighteningly like Han's.

"The meeting got cancelled. Somebody's brother had to have emergency surgery or something. Everything's okay, but they decided to move it to next week."

"Next week? When next week?" Leia asked, a touch of panic in her voice. Mara nudged her with an elbow while Luke gave the both of them a curious look.

"I don't know for sure. They haven't decided on a day yet."

"Well, try to keep the weekend free, won't you? I may have plans for us," Mara said.

"Okay, no problem. We have any hot chocolate left?" Luke asked as he wandered towards the kitchen.

"Why did you say that? You're going to give it all away!" Leia whispered fiercely.

"Oh, I'm going to give it away? You saw how he was looking at you with your panicky tone!" Mara whispered back.

The two women stared hard at each other, both of them biting back nasty words and holding onto impressive tempers. Luke and Mara hadn't been a couple long enough for either of them to feel very comfortable with their sudden new relationship as sisters-in-law. The fact of which was why Leia had offered an olive branch in the form of getting Mara to help her with Luke's surprise birthday party, and was also the reason that Mara accepted graciously. She'd been hoping it would make her feel more comfortable about suddenly being part of a family unit rather than just relying on herself, as Mara had done for so much of her life.

Unfortunately, so far, it had been an unmitigated disaster.

They could not agree on anything, from the time, to the locale, the decorations, or the guest list. And keeping it from Luke had somehow become the most difficult undertaking of the century. This was the third meeting that he'd interrupted by not being where he was supposed to be in as many weeks.

This time when Luke came around the corner, a steaming cup of hot chocolate in his hand, Leia and Mara were practically nose-to-nose, having an argument…all in whispers, naturally, as they were both still determined to keep this a secret.

"What are you two doing?" Luke asked, a frown on his face. "You're not having a fight, are you?"

"What? No! Don't be ridiculous, Skywalker," Mara said, at the same time as Leia was saying, "Of course we're not!"

Luke grinned at his wife and said, "You know you can't really call me Skywalker in that tone anymore. It is your last name, too."

"A few marriage vows aren't going to make me any easier on you, Jedi," Mara retorted.

"I like it when you don't go easy on me, Jade…Skywalker," Luke said, attempting one of Han's leers.

"O-kay, I think that's my cue to leave," Leia said, as she got to her feet. "Mara, I'll comm you tomorrow about that, er, thing."

"Right. I'll be working on it some tonight. I'm thinking you'll really like some of my ideas," Mara said, a defiant gleam in her eye.

"We'll see," Leia said, noncommittally. She gave Luke a quick hug and kiss, and then she was out the door.

After his sister had left, Luke turned a questioning look at his wife. "Were the two of you arguing? Because it really looked like an argument to me."

Mara sighed, somewhat frustrated. It wasn't that she didn't care for her sister-in-law, but Leia was so stubborn! She refused to admit that Mara might know her husband as well as she could know her twin. Still, they were trying to work together, and Mara could tell that Leia was trying…it was just hard for her to give up on the 'big sister' role, even if they didn't know which of them was actually the older one.

"We're just working on a project together, and we have some really differing opinions on it, that's all."

"Hmm, I see," Luke said, as he sat down beside her on the sofa. He carefully put his mug down on the table before wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in for a slow and gentle kiss.

Mara relaxed into his embrace, surprised as usual at how comfortable and right it felt to be in Luke's arms. The kiss lingered for a few minutes before he pulled back to smile softly down at her.

"This project wouldn't happen to be my so-called surprise birthday party, would it?"

Mara's mouth gaped open in shock and she reared back, hitting him sharply on the chest. "How did you know about that!?"

"Ow!" he exclaimed as he rubbed the spot she'd whacked. He sent her a look and she rolled her eyes before muttering a quick 'sorry'.

"Seriously, Mara, what do the two of you think the term Jedi Master means? I share a bond with you, and Leia's always been crap at shielding, especially from me."

"But we wanted it to be a surprise!" Mara said, her voice coming dangerously close to a whine not unlike Luke's adolescent one.

"Hey, I'm very thrilled and flattered that you're attempting to work with each other on this. I know you and she haven't really gotten along, and I love that both of you are trying to work past that just for me."

"Well, it's not going so great so far," Mara grumbled.

"That's kind of why I wanted to talk to you about it and not Leia. I know it's not logical, but she feels like she's lost me. Even though in her head she knows that's not true, in her heart, she feels it is. It's been her, me and Han for so long, that she's just finding it a little hard to let go. Do you see what I mean?" he asked quietly.

"I can. And she feels like I'm taking you away. But I don't want to separate you from your family, Luke. I've never wanted that."

"I know. Deep down, Leia knows it as well. But she is a Skywalker, and we're not known for our patience," Luke said with a smile.

"Oh, I don't know. You were pretty patient while you were waiting on me, weren't you?" Mara said, as she leaned in to give him another sultry kiss.

Luke was a little breathless when they parted; actually, they both were, and Mara was thinking of suggesting that they move to the bedroom. But she wanted to make one thing absolutely clear first.

"You had damn well better act surprised at that party, buster, or I will tell Leia that you knew about it beforehand," she threatened.

"I promise. Now, c'mere, you."

Mara let him pull her towards the nice, big bed in their bedroom, where they didn't think about parties or sisters or sisters-in-law for quite some time.

And when the big day finally arrived, Luke looked appropriately stunned at all the effort his wife and sister had gone to to make his birthday a happy one. Mara grinned at his quick little wink to her, right before she gave him a big kiss right in front of all their friends and family. To her relief and delight, her sister-in-law was smiling just as brightly as everyone else at the newlywed's smooching.

Perhaps it wouldn't be as hard to be a part of a family as Mara had imagined.

~END~