Chapter Text
Finally, his birthday had come. Luke rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up in his bed. His room was small, and was full of clutter. Luke flew out of bed and avoided stepping on various machine parts from his skyhopper or clothes left on the floor. He couldn’t help but smile, he loved his birthday. It was the day his guardians were able to spare a couple minutes on him.
His aunt and uncle were farmers, and farming doesn’t leave you with a lot of extra time. Luke liked the little extra attention. Though he loved his birthday very much, he couldn’t help but sometimes feel a tinge of guilt. He sometimes blamed himself for his mother's death. She died during his birth, he would wonder if she would still be alive if it weren't for him.
He managed to push that out of his brain, he tried not to dwell on that thought. He walked towards the dining room and saw his aunt. She looked up from the datapad and smiled warmly.
“Happy birthday, Luke! I can’t believe you’re ten!” Beru said as she got up to ruffle his hair.
Luke smiled, she placed a plate of food and blue milk in front of him. She had already prepared his breakfast. It wasn’t much, but small gestures like that showed she cared, and wanted him to be happy.
“Soon, we will be heading down to Anchorhead for the Empire Day celebration” Beru smiled, Luke didn’t really have an opinion on the Empire but he liked the little celebration they had on Anchorhead. He would sometimes pretend it was thrown just for him. His uncle came in and smiled.
“Happy birthday Luke.” Owen was a man of few words. He sat next to Luke and picked up the datapad Beru was using and looking through the planner. “At around 1300 hours we will head out for Anchorhead, alright?” Owen sighed.
Luke could tell his uncle was stressed, he guessed it was because Owen had to push around a lot of work to make time to go out for this afternoon. Luke couldn’t help but feel guilty for his uncle's bad mood. Luke pushed his food around, feeling like his uncle was annoyed at him. He sat up and chugged his blue milk.
“Thank you guys for taking me out to the celebration,” Luke said as he walked away from the table to walk outside the homestead.
He sat out on the sand and looked at the horizon, on his birthday he couldn’t help but think about his parents. He sighed and pictured what they might have looked like, he heard his aunt sometimes slip that he looked like his father. They didn’t talk about his parents much and when he would bring them up they would instantly shut him down, especially Owen.
Sometimes Beru mentioned the time they visited the homestead. Luke soaked up the little information that they had given. He didn’t know his mother's name, but Luke knew his father’s - Anakin Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker was a pilot, and knowing that information made Luke feel an instant connection with him, he loved to fly to. He wished he could talk to his father about flying, he wished he could talk to his parents about a million things. He wished he could talk to his parents at least once.
Luke passed the time by working on his skyhopper, there wasn’t much work to do though. His uncle rarely let him use it as much as he’d like. His aunt and uncle exited the homestead.
“Come on Luke, it's time to leave!” Beru called over. Luke scrambled out of the skyhopper and started towards the speeder.
Luke was practically jumping in his seat, the celebration wasn’t grand but it was a lot of fun. Vendors had amazing food, there were toys sold, though they were all Empire related. Luke sometimes got stormtrooper dolls and TIE fighter toys if his uncle was in a good mood. He laid his head on his hand and looked over the side of the speeder. The sand sprayed him in the face but he was used to it.
Anchorhead was buzzing, people crowded the streets more than usual. When they arrived his aunt looked him in the eye.
“Luke, as you know it’s incredibly dangerous so hold on to my hand the whole time.” Luke nodded his head as his uncle started looking around. People on Tatooine didn’t necessarily like the Empire, but it was an excuse to get together.
As Luke and his guardians made their way through the crowd, Luke held on tightly to his aunt's hand. They were talking about something, but he couldn’t hear them over the crowd. Probably Owen trying to figure out a way to leave this place as soon as possible. People kept brushing past Luke on his left and right, the streets were small enough but this crowd only made it worse.
“Let's head to one of the vendors, Luke are you hungry?” His aunt yelled over the noise of the crowd.
“Yeah! Let's head over there!” Luke pointed to a vendor who was selling Bantha steak, it was his favorite. They shuffled through the crowd.
“I hate how blasted crowded this place gets.” Owen complained. Luke couldn’t care less about his uncle at the moment, the vendor had just handed him some food and Luke was practically giddy.
He wandered over to the side and sat down and leaned back on the side of a building and dug into his food. His aunt joined him and looked over the crowd.
“They would have loved you, you know. And proud of who you're growing to be.” Beru said as she smiled down at him sympathetically. Luke instantly stopped eating and looked up at his aunt wide eyed, this was unexpected. They never talked about his parents, and if they did he usually had to pull it out of them. He could only look up at her as she continued, “I am sorry you can’t spend your birthday with them dear, you look like your father you know. He had blonde hair and blue eyes just like you.” She smiled.
“I know” he smiled back. He never got tired of hearing about that.
“Your mother was very beautiful, she had dark brown hair and it was always beauti-” Beru was cut off by Owen walking back towards them.
“Beru please,” He said with pleading eyes. “This conversation is over” He stood over them with his hands on his hips. “I am sorry Luke, but they are gone, Bringing them up only makes it worse.” Luke was getting tired of his uncle's mood and glared up at him.
“You can’t expect me to never ask about them!” Luke protested. “I am allowed to wonder, at least know how they died!” Owen shook his head in anger,
“It doesn’t matter how they died! You shouldn’t ask questions with answers you won’t like!” Owen glared daggers at Luke.
Luke stood up and tried to make himself as tall as he could, but was short, even for a 10 year old.
“You shouldn’t keep information like this from me! I have a right to know!” Owen chuckled at Luke.
“Boy, you have no right to talk to me like this! This conversation is over.” Owen began to walk away when Luke grabbed his arm.
“This isn’t fair!” Luke cried, Owen turned around.
“Life isn’t fair Luke, now please let's try to enjoy this celebration” Luke let go, defeated. His uncle stormed off through the crowd.
Luke looked down at the floor, his eyes beginning to tear up. Arguing with his uncle was useless, he was so stubborn. It just made Luke so frustrated he was brought to tears. His uncle never wanted Luke's parents brought up. Beru knelt down in front of Luke and hugged him, Luke stood there for a moment before he hugged her back and cried softly.
It was his birthday, his uncle shouldn’t be treating him like this. His aunt stood up and looked down at Luke.
“I am sorry that he is acting like this Luke, you know how he gets.” She said with a sympathetic smile.
“I will go and talk to him, maybe we can still try and get you a new TIE fighter toy.” She smiled, her voice was so calm and peaceful. She always comforted Luke when he and Owen fought. She grabbed Luke's hand and began to walk through the crowd again.
It was still a very crowded street and Luke held on as tight as he could without hurting her. He looked around at all the different types of alien species he passed. Some tall, some short, some with multiple eyes. He instantly looked back down, he didn’t want to stare and seem rude.
While walking through the crowd someone behind him must have been running and bumped into Luke, causing him to fall and let go of his aunt’s hand. Luke and the alien that bumped into him struggled to stand up, Luke brushed himself off as he looked at the alien. They looked to be a Sullestan, as the alien shuffled away he muttered “Sorry, little one.”
Luke gave him a questioning look before he realised Beru wasn’t standing there waiting for him.
She must have gotten carried away by the crowd, Luke began to feel his stomach sink. He looked around and around quickly, making himself dizzy.
“Aunt Beru!!” He cried desperately, he began to walk through the crowd. He could hear cheers and people celebrating all over the place. But he couldn’t hear his aunt. Luke began to panic and began to feel sick.
“Aunt Beru!” He shouted again, his little voice was muffled out by the sounds of laughter and conversations. He started running through the crowd, looking left and right. Desperately trying to find his guardians. Stars, even seeing his uncle would be a relief, even if his uncle did ground him for somehow getting lost. He knew his uncle would somehow try to blame it on him.
He continued to run, he could feel he was about to cry when he accidentally ran into someone. He fell on his back as the rodian turned around to look at him.
“Lost, are you boy?” He asked quizzically. The men around the rodian began to laugh. Luke stood up and nodded slowly.
“I got lost in the crowd.” Luke stood there awkwardly, he knew he shouldn’t talk to strangers but he was desperate.
“Oh” The rodian said slowly, he looked to the men behind him quickly and back to Luke. “Well you know, I could always help ya, kid.” The rodian stuck out his hand. Luke gulped and looked at him anxiously, he thought about running back into the crowd. But this was better than nothing.
“O-okay, please try and help me sir.” Luke took the man's hand.
“Alright kid, tell me who you’re looking for.” The rodian said as he and Luke began to walk back into the crowd. Luke began to describe his aunt and uncle to the rodian, but wasn’t sure if the man was listening to him very much. “I got the picture,” The man said as he raised his hand. Luke looked around nervously for his aunt and uncle, his stomach twisting in knots. He wasn’t sure what but something in his head began to ring an alarm that this rodian was bad news.
Luke noticed that they were walking towards one of the entrances to Anchorhead.
“Why are we heading out of the spaceport?” Luke asked nervously. The rodian turned to him,
“Maybe they thought you would head out here where there are less people, and would be more easily able to find you.” Luke followed him as the crowd disappeared. The suns were heading towards the horizon, and knew the crowd wouldn’t leave until after the fireworks
. “Ber-” Luke began to call when he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head and fell hard. Black was all he saw, and it stayed that way for a couple of hours.