Swimming Lessons

By Knightmara

A/N: Apparently, the previous story file that had been uploaded to this site and had remained here for quite some time mysteriously disappeared. So, I've had to upload a brand new file of the story, and of course, I've gone through and made a few fixes (having not read this story in, oh, probably two or three years). I hope I've caught all of my mistakes. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the great flannelled one. I own nothing.

- - - - - - - - - - -

It was nearing sunset as the lone figure dressed in Rebel fatigues wandered out of the woods and toward the sandy beach where the water roared and crashed upon the shore. The place was idyllic, and would have been better suited as a vacation resort than a Rebel base. But such was life during these trying months after their first major victory. The Alliance had managed to keep barely one step ahead of the Empire since Luke Skywalker had destroyed their secret weapon with a single, well-aimed shot. Standing alone on the beach, Leia Organa knew that it was only a matter of time before they'd have to evacuate this base as well. Might as well take advantage of the location while she still could.

Struggling to remove her boots, she stared out at the crystal blue waves that rolled toward her. She silently cursed, as the boots appeared reluctant to leave her feet, and she was well aware that she was not behaving in a very royal manner. Brushing a stray hair out of her eyes, she continued to yank on the offending footwear, wondering if there was really any point to trying to behave like a Princess at all. She was the last survivor of the Royal Family of a planet that no longer existed. A familiar tightness grew in her chest and she swallowed it down, brushing the unwelcome thoughts of her homeworld and her family out of her mind for the time being. Right now, she was merely a Rebel, struggling to get her feet out of Rebel-issue boots so that she might go for a swim in the ocean that was a short distance away from the Rebel base. As she considered how much she was now rebelling against the stereotyped notion of a proper princess, the word "Rebel" clearly suited her. Unfortunately, her boots didn't.

A rustle in the woods behind her brought her attention away from her feet as she craned her neck and reached for her blaster in one swift motion. The sight of a very familiar young man emerging from the woods brought a sigh of relief and a smile to her lips.

"Luke," she laughed, removing her hand from her blaster. "You startled me."

"Sorry," the young man muttered in apology. "I didn't realize anyone else would be out here."

Leia flashed him a warm smiled. "That's all right. So what brings you here?"

"The scenery. I came down to watch the sunset. You know, one sun, lots of clouds, a horizon of water." He paused with a nostalgic grin. "Very different from Tatooine."

"I'll say."

"And you?" he asked, dropping to a seat on the sand beside her.

"Attempting to go for a swim," she replied. "If I can ever get these damn boots off."

"Here, let me help." Luke shifted to sit in front of her and deftly tugged at her right boot in just the right series of movements that it seemed to come off effortlessly.

"Thanks," Leia said in awe as he repeated the actions with the left boot. In no time, both boots were laying on the ground and her feet were deliciously bare. "I've been trying to get those off for a while now."

Luke shrugged his shoulders in response to her gratitude. "They're very similar to a pair of sandstorm boots I had back home. You get used to it. Takes some practice though."

"I can see that."

Glancing back toward the ocean waves, he asked, "You really going to swim in that?"

Leia nodded. "Care to join me?"

"Not really."

"Why not?"

"I don't swim."

Leia gave him a playful tap on the shoulder and teased, "Oh, come on. It'll be fun." She stood, brushing the sand off of her suit looking down at her companion who remained seated. "Why won't you swim?"

Luke gave her an exasperated glare. "Because I can't, that's why."

Leia's mouth dropped open. "You can't swim?"

"Not much water on Tatooine, you know." He sounded a bit hurt an embarrassed, and Leia silently cursed herself for making such a ridiculous mistake. Some diplomat she was.

She reached down and took his hand, pulling him up from the sand. "Well, now's as good a time as any to learn."

Luke couldn't have been more shocked if she'd said she was going to sprout wings and teach him to fly. "You're going to teach me?"

"Yes."

In response, Luke pointed out toward the ocean waves. "Princess, if you try to teach me in that, I'll probably drown and pull you down with me."

Leia placed her hands on her hips and scowled. "Nonsense. I'm a very strong swimmer, so I can guarantee you won't pull me down. And I would never let you drown."

Luke still looked skeptical, but he finally agreed. "I'm not making any promises, though. I'll get into the water, but I'm not going in any farther than chest deep."

"Deal," Leia laughed. "Oh, and try not to call me 'Princess.' We've been through too much together for you to resort to titles." She watched as a deep red blush began to appear on his cheeks, and she smiled. He was so innocent, she mused. Wondering how he would react to what she was about to do, she turned away from him and began to strip out of her fatigues.

"What are you doing?" Like clockwork, Luke's nervous question clamored behind her.

Continuing to undress, she answered, "Getting rid of unwanted weight and drag. And I suggest you do the same." She climbed out of her suit to reveal a tight-fitting black sleeveless top and matching shorts. Glancing toward Luke to see the relief on his face that she was still decently dressed, she folded her fatigues and placed them beside her boots.

She watched as Luke tentatively pulled of his outer garments and was a bit surprised at what she saw. Hidden under all those layers of rebel issue clothing was a well muscled torso that she hadn't expected to see on the young man who appeared rather diminutive in comparison to many of the others on the base. Feeling her eyes on him, Luke glanced up at her self-consciously.

"What?" he asked.

Leia grinned teasingly. "I just figured you to be a little scrawnier, that's all."

The disbelieving look that crossed his face was priceless. "Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not sitting around all day tinkering with droids and vaporaters any more."

At his indignation, Leia lost herself to a fit of mirthful giggles before his jacket landed right on her head.

"Hey, I could have you court-martialed for that!"

Luke cast a wary eye at her, "Dressed like that, Princess?"

"I told you not to call me that," she cried, playfully scooping up a handful of wet sand. She aimed for his head, but he ducked and went sprinting down the beach. Laughing, she charged after him, splashing into the water as he stopped abruptly at the water's edge.

"Dark Lords of the Sith, that's cold!" he shrieked.

"It is not," Leia countered, splashing him with water that he tried vainly to dodge.

"It is, too!"

"Just get in, and your body will get used to it."

Following her instructions, Luke waded into the surf until the waves reached his chest. Grimacing, he complained, "I'm still cold."

"Quit whining." She couldn't help but snicker inwardly at his obvious discomfort with the whole situation. "You ready to try swimming?"

Look shook his head, trembling. "Trying to get used to the water, first."

"Haven't you ever taken a bath?"

Again, Luke shook his head.

"Never?"

"Only sonic showers on Tatooine and water showers with the Alliance."

Leia nodded in understanding. She gave him a few minutes to adjust while she swam about a bit. She was careful not to swim to far away from him, for fear that he'd panic. But when she finally asked him how he was doing, his reaction surprised her.

"I actually kinda' like this," he responded. "It feels good, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. Why else do you think I decided to go for a swim?"

"So are you going to teach me, now?"

Leia stopped swimming, and looked at him, growing even more surprised. "Sure. But since when did you get so eager?"

"Since now," he answered with a sly grin she couldn't quite decipher. "So teach me already."

"All right." Leia swam up next to him and drew him back toward the shore until she could comfortably stand on the ocean floor with her head and shoulders above water. Then she stretched out her arms behind him. "What I want you to do first is lay back and lift your feet off of the bottom."

"What?"

"The water is dense with salt," she explained, "which means if you relax you can float."

"Relax?" came his dubious response. "Is that it?"

"Don't worry, my hands are behind you, so you've got support."

Luke laughed outright at that. "You're going to support me?"

"Water density," she repeated. "Keep that in mind."

"Okay," he sighed, and leaned back. It took several attempts before he finally stopped kicking and struggling against the water.

"See, Luke?" Leia remarked when he finally managed to float on his back. "You just have to trust me and let go."

"You sound like Ben," he commented.

"Proof that he was a wise man," she joked in reply. "Ready to try floating on your stomach?"

"Sure," answered Luke, dropping his feet to the ocean floor once again. "But one question."

"Shoot."

"Where does my face go?"

"And they're actually thinking of putting you in a position of command?" She shook her head. "You hold your breath when it's under water, and when you want to breathe, you turn your face to one side."

"Ah, how obvious."

It took him a while to master the art of holding his breath under water, and another while to master floating again. By that time, the sun had already set, and only dim moonlight remained to illuminate the two figures in the middle of the black ocean waves.

"We can finish this up tomorrow," Luke suggested, noting the onset of evening.

"No way," Leia retorted. "You are going to finish this now. Okay, I'm going to move my hands out from under your stomach and what I want you to do is kick your feet and move your arms like this." She visually demonstrated proper breaststroke technique as he watched, comprehending.

"Got it," he said. And he did, in fact, have it. Within moments, he was swimming out away from her with surprising agility. Before she could even holler for him to turn around and start swimming back, he had already done so, and quickly reemerged from the water in front of her. Hair matted, with salt water dripping in his face, he beamed, "How was that?"

"That was great," Leia had to admit. But then she got a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "Now let's see if you can keep up with me."

She quickly launched into a breaststroke, swimming parallel to the shore, with Luke close behind. She could hear him splashing away back there, and with a giggle, she quickened her strokes and tried to make sure her kicks were near enough to his face to splash him back sufficiently. Playing around in the surf like this, she was thankful there was no one else around to see them. Not only would an intruder think her behavior undignified and childish, but he or she might also wonder about the relationship between her and Luke. Not that Leia could sufficiently explain it herself. She was drawn to the young blonde pilot with the eager blue eyes and quick smile who had burst into her cell on the Death Star a year ago saying, "I'm here to rescue you." She felt closer to him than anyone else since the destruction of Alderaan, and she knew he probably felt the same. Yet it was not a physical attraction by any means, at least not on her side. While she could definitely see what the other females saw in him—the blue eyes, the cute smile, and the attractive features—they stirred nothing in Leia in terms of romantic longing. When she caught crowds of giggling girls staring at him as he walked through the base or worked on his X-wing, it was never jealousy she felt when she scowled at them. Rather, it was a sense of protectiveness that she couldn't quite understand feeling. And while she would often fix her hair and check her reflection before speaking to other members of the opposite sex in order to appear attractive to them, she never played that game with Luke. With him, she was always herself—a woman who possessed the qualities of being opinionated, bossy, and stubborn while also being sensitive, self-conscious, and longing for love.

As these thoughts ran through her head, she felt a sudden tug on her foot and was startled to hear Luke's winded cry, "Gotcha!"

"Oh, no you don't," she shot back, and quickly splashed water in his face. This started a splashing war that didn't let up until a third voice broke through their joyful screams.

"So this is what you guys do in your spare time," the voice mused with a touch of sarcasm.

Luke and Leia both turned toward the shore to identify the figure standing in the dim moonlight, but the voice had already given him away.

"Captain Solo, how nice of you to drop by," Leia intoned icily. She ignored Luke's questioning stare at her abrupt shift in behavior, and she began swimming back toward the pile of clothes on the shore. Leave it to Solo to put an end to their fun.

Her mind raced as she swam toward the beach. Solo was a matter she wasn't sure how do deal with yet. Her relationship with him was even more complicated that the one she had with Luke. While it was clear that she was not attracted to Luke in a physical sense, it enraged Leia that she often found herself studying Solo's self-confident stride without meaning to or fixing her hair subconsciously before speaking with him. He was definitely the sort of man she wanted to deal with as little as possible and to loathe the rest of the time, but Leia found herself unable to do either. He was aggravatingly available to perform the slightest favors, and possessed a reckless charm that was totally disarming. He also seemed to care a lot more than he let on, which was also endearing in its own way. Of course, she couldn't forget that he was also in the habit of nitpicking every little thing she did and insulting her at the slightest provocation, which left her at a loss as to how to categorize him in her mind. Well, she'd just have to wait, she supposed.

As she dragged herself out of the surf, she nodded curtly, "Solo."

Solo eyed her suspiciously. "Aren't you a little cold there, your Worship?"

In reaction, she glanced down at her scantily clad body and hissed, "I'm perfectly comfortable at the moment, although I'd prefer to get into some dry clothes if you don't mind."

"Of course not," Han remarked in an unidentifiable tone, pointing toward her pile of clothes.

It was not long before Luke staggered out of the surf as well. "Hi, Han," he murmured in greeting.

Han watched as the younger man stumbled toward his own pile of clothes and asked, "Hey, kid, I thought you couldn't swim."

Luke shrugged his shoulders as he pulled his pants on over his wet shorts. "I couldn't." Indicating Leia's hastily dressing form, he explained, "She just taught me."

"Good," Han responded to no one in particular before heading back into the woods toward the base. "Hope you guys had fun out here," he called over his shoulder before disappearing from view.

Leia stood staring into the darkness of the path he'd just taken. Was that jealousy she'd just detected coming from Solo? Jealousy? It couldn't be, she told herself. Not over her and Luke. It was ridiculous. She threw on her jacket and dismissed the thought entirely. Grabbing her boots, she turned toward Luke. "You ready to head back?"

Luke had just pulled on his boots faster than Leia could have ever imagined, and nodded. Even in the dim light, she could tell he was shivering. She had to admit it was a little bit cool this night, and it must be especially chilly for someone used to the weather of a desert planet.

"Then let's get inside, shall we?" she asked offering her arm to him in a parody of gentlemanly behavior.

"Yes," Luke agreed through chattering teeth. "Let's."

He took her arm, and the two of them started into the woods.

"Wait," spoke Luke suddenly. Without a warning, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Luke," Leia gasped in dismay. "What was that for?"

"For your infinite patience and guidance," he whispered, though she could tell by his voice that he was smiling in that wistful way of his. "Mostly for putting up with me long enough to teach me today."

She stood silently staring at him in the darkness. She loved him, that much was certain. She knew she would always love him. But the path that the love was meant to take was still so uncertain. She didn't think it was the love that led to "Happily ever after," but she knew it was the kind she could always depend on. The love of a friend. Rising up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek, she said, "That's what friends are for, Luke."

"And we are friends?"

With a soft laugh, she replied, "Of course we are. You're practically a brother to me. I don't know what I'd have done without you this past year."

She felt Luke give her shoulders a hard squeeze. "I don't know what I'd have done without you either." Taking her arm again, they started back into the woods. "Probably ended up drowned on some water world," he murmured.

Leia couldn't help but laugh at his joke. Leaning her head against his shoulder as they walked, she thought, "We just have to win this war. For friendship's sake."

And together, they followed Solo's path back to the base.