This didn't surprise Xicanti at all. Truth be told, it made him feel much better. Leia was being honest with him, and so he supposed the least he could do would be to be honest back. "I wouldn't have been surprised if you'd done that," he told her. "It was what I deserved." He looked over at his sister. "Thanks for keeping me around."
Leia blushed at little and shrugged. "Oh, I probably would have sent some soldiers out to find you after a few hours anyways," she admitted. "I'm really not a very mean person, deep down inside. As soon as I'd gotten over the fact that Jacen had come home, as dirty as you and wearing nothing but a loincloth made of scalps, I would have realized that it really wasn't your fault after all."
This fact did surprise the boy. "But it was my fault!" he protested. "I was the one who took Lowie and Jacen down there and got them in trouble. I would have deserved whatever I got!"
Leia just looked over at him mournfully. "Perhaps you'll understand better once you're older," she said, quite simply. Xicanti really didn't see how age would affect anything in this matter, but kept quiet. Leia was an intelligent person, in his eyes, and he decided that she knew what she was talking about.
It didn't take very long to reach Xicanti's room. He had been given the chamber he was first brought to upon entering the Palace. Although the former thief had never really thought about colors before he'd come to the Palace, he'd found that he was quite fond of green. Once he'd told Chewbacca this, the Wookiee Lord had made sure that he'd gotten the green room, which was supposed to be for visiting dignitaries. "Leia'll probably have a fit once I tell her that I gave them to you!" he had laughed. "But she'll get over it soon enough." Just as Chewie had predicted, Leia hadn't been upset for too long.
"You'll need to take a bath as soon as we get inside," Leia announced, bringing Xicanti out of his memories.
The young thief let out a sigh. "You have a thing for baths, don't you?" he asked his sister in his most pathetic tone.
Leia glared at him in mock anger. "I don't want you going around the Palace all filthy," she told him. "Besides, people are a lot nicer to look at when they've been properly washed." She paused, as if contemplating something. "Do you know how to wash your hair by yourself?"
Xicanti shook his head. Other than once, two weeks earlier, his hair never been washed. That well-meant attempt hadn't turned out very well at all. His pitiful attempts had only served to tangle it up even more.
Leia nodded thoughtfully to herself. "I'll have to help you with it then," she decided, speaking to herself more than to her half-brother. "It desperately needs a washing and a brushing." She shook a finger at him. "Don't thieves look after themselves at all?"
Once more, Xicanti had to shake his head. Before he'd come to the Palace, he'd had nothing but a few sponge cleanings in all his life. Baths were completely new to him.
As the siblings approached the door to the room, (which was, in fitting with the trend, green), Xicanti went ahead a little to open the door for Leia. As she went through it, he gave a small bow, which brought peels of laughter from his sister. "What's so funny?" he asked crossly. "I was just trying to be nice."
Leia managed to stop long enough to answer him. "You're filthy and wearing a pair of scalps for a loincloth, yet opening the door for me like a gentleman." She laughed again. "You just look funny, that's all."
Although Xicanti had never liked being laughed at, he had to agree with his sister that the sight he had presented her with must have been funny. Although he couldn't quite bring his mind to accept laughing at himself, Xicanti smiled along with his sister. I'm starting to like her, he found. It's strange how you start out not really knowing a person, but end up feeling like you've known them for ages. I think I could come to love this sister with very little effort.
Leia, of course, moved straight to the bathroom, which contained the tub. "First off, we'll need to get you clean," she told her younger brother. "You can't go to sleep like that." She looked disapprovingly at her brother's current state. You'll end up getting the sheets all dirty and making more work for the cleaning 'droids. I'll get the water drawn; you try and find the soap."
Xicanti nodded and went off to the cupboard where the substance had been the last time he had checked. He found it with very little difficulty, and brought it into the bathroom. Leia hadn't completely finished filling the bathtub yet, so he set himself down on the 'fresher seat to wait for her to finish.
Leia glanced up at him. "Did you bring the shampoo?"
Xicanti had completely forgotten it. He shook his head, earning him a reproving look from Leia. "Well, go get it, then!" she commanded. As Xicanti left the little room again, he heard her mutter, "That one's worse than Jacen when it comes to getting him to do something!"
The boy went over to the cupboard again, grinning to himself. I guess Jacen doesn't like bathing much either, he speculated. Han's probably made him take one by now, though. He was nearly as dirty as I am, if that's possible. Leia was finished with the water by the time Xicanti brought back the shampoo. "In you get," his sister commanded, pointing at the tub as she did so. Xicanti obliged her, taking off the loincloth with very little trouble.
He was surprised to discover that he really didn't mind washing the dirt off. The water was warm and pleasant, and the filth came off easily once he began to scrub himself with the soap. In what seemed like no time, Xicanti was a more-or-less normal color for the first time in more than a decade.
Leia nodded thoughtfully. "That'll do for your body," she told him, "but you really do need to have your hair washed. It's far too matted and filthy." She took a closer look at the tangled mass Xicanti called his hair. "You know, I think it'll likely hang half way down your back once it's all cleaned up and brushed out."
The hearing this pleased Xicanti very much. I've always liked the thought of longer hair, he thought to himself. He sat up at this thought, thinking of how nice it'd be to actually be able to see his hair. Ah, to have it long... "You aren't going to have to cut it, are you?" he asked anxiously.
Leia laughed at his tone. "If I can manage to get it untangled, I don't think I'll have to," she said. "If it refuses to come out of that mat it's in, though, I'm afraid I'll have to crop it all short."
Xicanti nodded, feverently hoping it wouldn't come to that. Leia moved around to the back of the tub and started work on his hair. She had to brush it quite vigorously, which the boy didn't enjoy at all, but it wasn't for naught. Within fifteen minutes, Xicanti's hair was more or less untangled. Leia had been right; he could feel the fringe of it about half way down his naked back. Carefully, he put one hand back and felt it. It wasn't as rough as he'd expected it to be after its years of neglect. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Patiently, the boy waited for Leia to finish washing it.
"There, all done!" Leia announced proudly. "You cleaned up fairly well, if you don't mind my saying." She motioned for Xicanti to get out of the tub, then handed him a towel. "Once you're all dry, you'll have to take a look at yourself."
Xicanti obligingly used the towel to dry off his body and hair. The later took quite a bit of time and effort, but he managed. Leia smiled as he put the towel down. "I don't think you'll mind the reflection too much," she said, directing him to the mirror. "I know if I were twenty years younger, and not married to Han, I'd like it!"
Seeing as how his sister evidently wanted him to see what he looked like, Xicanti obliged her by walking over to the mirror. It's not like I'll really look different, he told himself. Just a hell of a lot cleaner. He was wrong.
Had Xicanti not known he was standing in front of a mirror, he wouldn't have recognized himself. The only things he concretely recognized were his eyes, with their cat's pupils and wild glint. Loose, red-gold curls now cascaded down his back, looking not even the least bit feminine, as they might have on one with a less masculine face and figure. The aforementioned face could actually be seen now, proving that it was not the ugly mug he had always been told he possessed; in fact, it was quite the opposite. His body was gorgeously proportioned; it was evident that he was anything but weak, yet agile at the same time. His muscles, evident and well developed, were sleek and beautiful. To put it simply, the former thief was handsome. Very handsome.
Xicanti turned to Leia. "I don't look like myself anymore," he commented.
Leia smiled at him. "You don't look anything like you used to," she replied, "but I don't think that's too great a loss." She let out a yawn. "I'll leave you to yourself now. I'd better go see how Han's made out with Jasa, and let the little guy know that I'm not as angry at him as I seemed before. He's surprisingly sensitive about these sorts of things. It upsets him to go to sleep when someone's mad at him and he hasn't made it better." She yawned again. "I'd like to get to sleep, too. Being woken up at three in the morning by some savage looking Senator isn't exactly restful, you know."
Xicanti nodded. "He woke me up down in the slums."
Leia was almost out the door when he next spoke to her. "Leia?" he asked tentatively.
Leia turned around. "Yes?"
"Thank you."
Leia smiled. "You're more than welcome, my brother," she whispered, looking as though she might cry. "Very much more than welcome." She left the room, closing the door behind her.
