For the Rebellion

Leia stepped out of the refresher, after more time than she wanted to admit in there. After the series of humiliations she'd been subjected to when dealing with Jabba the Hutt, she was eager to scrub herself clean, and also scrub away all the sand from the world behind. Unfortunately sand really did get everywhere.

It had taken a while, but finally she felt clean again. Han was back, they'd reunited with the Rebel Fleet, and Luke was a full-fledged Jedi Knight. For the first time in a while, she was really starting to feel hopeful.

Then she looked around her quarters. The Rebellion was hardly the height of luxury, especially compared to her life on Alderaan, but such a plain room had its advantages. There were no distractions. It was easy to focus, and it was easy to see when someone had come in.

A few things were off. Ornaments - a handful of things, memories from her home - were shifted, the bed was ruffled, and she could have sworn she'd left her cloak over her bed.

She'd ask about that later. First she wanted to dress, after all that time scrubbing herself clean. She went to the wardrobe.

Empty. Maybe she'd misremembered the layout of this ship? She went to the next, hoping to at least find a standard uniform.

Some minutes later, after painstakingly going through every cupboard and drawer, she had to accept the fact. There were no clothes in this room. Not what she'd changed out of, not even that awful metal bikini.

Leia stiffened. She felt for a moment more , not just naked but apparently naked without choice.

Still, she had enough will to hold her head high despite that. She went to the bed, tugging the tightly wrapped regulation blankets off the bunk, and wrapping it around herself, before going to the door.

She didn't take a step outside her room, trying to hide even her sheet-covered body behind the frame. She was a princess, she needed to keep some dignity.

"Trooper!" she said sharply, to one of the passing staff. He turned. She avoided blushing through sheer willpower.

"Highness?" he said.

"I need you to fetch me a spare uniform," she said. "Someone was in my quarters without my permission. They took..."

No, probably better not to finish that thought. She could feel her cheeks warming as it was. She kept on, voice never losing the cadence of an order.

"That's an order!" she said.

"Yes, but, ma'am?" he said. "What will you need it for?"

She was not going to tell a trooper that she, Princess Leia of Alderaan, was stuck in her quarters without any actual clothing. There was fragging way that was going to happen.

"What do you think a uniform would be used for, trooper?" Leia snapped.

"I know the usual, but I thought you..." he began. His eyes widened. "Oh no, that was decided when you weren't here, wasn't it?"

"Trooper?"

"Nothing!" he said quickly. "I think maybe you'd better talk to Senator Mothma. She'd probably be better at explaining to it."

He suddenly looked very nervous. Leia grabbed his arm before he could run away, reluctantly moving further out into the doorway, keeping her sheet up and around herself with just the one hand.

"I want to hear it now," Leia said dangerously. "From you. What might I want to talk to Mon Mothma about?"

The trooper looked around nervously. Apparently this was news he really did not want to break.

"So. Er. You know who the most celebrated new members to the rebels are?" he said. "Skywalker, Solo, and that Calrissian's been helpful too recently."

"Of course I know them," Leia said.

"Yes, well," the trooper said. he cleared his throat. "It was noted that we gained a number of allies, and useful allies, because of. Er. You."

"Get to the point."

"Well, because of you in a very particular way. they were, ahem, attracted to you," the trooper said.

Leia couldn't help the slight blush at that.

"Well I can hardly help that can I?" Leia said.

"No, but, Senator Mothma doesn't want you to stop it," the trooper said. "She reasoned that if we can cause that to happen more, we can get the help we so desperately need. So it was, er, decided that in aid of that, you would appear at all times in a state, er, best suited to, er, attracting more recruits."

He stammered wildly. Leia stared.

"Naked," Leia said.

There was no hiding her blush now. The trooper stopped stammering.

"You mean to say that while I was away risking my life to save a... friend and an ally to the rebellion," Leia said, "The Rebel Alliance decided without any input from me, that I need to be naked to attract more allies who'd rather think with their lightsabers than their morals?"

The trooper stammered.

"Solo and Skywalker have really been a lot of help," he said weakly. "We'd never have defeated the first Star without your body."

Leia wrapped the sheet tighter around herself, pulling her arm back. She scowled.

"Senator Mothma says we all have to make sacrifices for the cause," the trooper said.

"Yeah, I don't see her marching down the hallway naked," Leia said.

"There have been pin-ups," the trooper said. "Of you, I mean. On the sides of ships. It's been a moral booster. Very..."

His voice trailed off when he realized that his words weren't as encouraging as he clearly meant them to be. Leia glowered.

"They're tastefully done," he said quickly. He paused. "Mostly. The one with the dianoga's a bit... Anyway! You're a symbol to the rebellion! An independent cell on Felucia made contact after seeing our new X-Wings, it's going well."

He wilted a bit more under Leia's glare. Quickly, he started to move away.

"I should return to my duties, Princess. Ask the Senator if you have any questions. Bye!"

"You come back here!"

He spoke very quickly. Leia took a step out of her quarters after him, trying to grab his arm, intending to get a full account of every detail that had led to this... decision.

Instead, the door to her quarters slid shut on the back of her sheet before she reached the trooper. The sheet was wrenched out of her grip, for a moment leaving the princess bare and flailing in the corridor.

She heard a handful of cheers, a 'finally!' from the other staff in the hallway before, shaking, fiddling with the door to her quarters and tripping over the sheet to get back inside, cheeks burning from having already been seen.

Maybe she should have stayed in Jabba's Palace. At least there she had a bikini.