It isn't, exactly, Leia Organa's first day as an aide in the Imperial Senate. That was a week ago, and she spent it filling out spreadsheets.

It's the first day that Senator Bail Organa has run out of plausibly deniable leeway to hide her in his office, though, and so she's walking through the halls of the Imperial Senate with her chin up, firm but not angry expression on her face, gaze fixed unwaveringly ahead of her, walking like she doesn't plan to be interrupted, all without seeming like she's hurrying.

She's just taking messages to other Senators right now, all ones with a reputation for being nice to new aides. They're not even all her father's allies; he tries to be subtle about who his friends are. (He hasn't told her who all his friends are, not yet.)

It's common busy work for a new aide, and Leia gets that, and she's appreciating the chance to get an actual look at people and overhear new gossip. Really. She is.

(But she'd really like to be doing something more than this. Something exciting.)

- And then Leia rounds a corner without slowing down much, and the hallway is really supposed to be deserted, but the carpet's thick enough you don't hear footsteps -