Chapter Text
You took a deep breath as you saw your home planet, Siolia, come into view. You didn't realize how much you had missed it—you hadn't been back since you started training with Luke.
You had no reason to until now; it was definitely a tourist-oriented planet and everyone you wanted to visit typically met with you elsewhere, carrying out their own travels.
Lately, your progress in Jedi training had halted, and Luke had offered to take you anywhere you wanted to go to take some time off and help you figure it out.
When you got off Luke’s rather cramped ship, you stretched and took another deep breath as he helped R2 get out, who was excitingly beeping over how pretty and blue everything was. The familiar mild scent of saltwater was much more comforting than you anticipated. You couldn't even see a beach nearby—though there were plenty—yet the sweet smell still covered the whole planet.
“Wow, you weren't lying when you said it was a vacation planet. This is incredible,” Luke said, looking around.
“Isn't it?” You took what little you and Luke could pack out of his ship.
“Hey, I can get it—”
“Too late,” you said, already walking to your door.
You were on the cusp of one of the larger cities and a smaller village, just a few roads away from each. Every other direction led to different beaches. You had grown up in the city but spent much of your childhood in the village, so you ended up buying a house right in the middle a few years before you had joined the group aboard the Millennium Falcon.
As you stacked your bag on top of Luke’s in your left hand, you used your right to dig around in your pocket for your house key. You struggled getting the door unlocked before Luke took the bags from you, rolling his eyes while smiling.
“I forgot you have to…” You used your now freed hand to pull the locked door towards you, and the keys finally clicked. “Ha.”
Opening the door, you made a gesture to Luke and R2 to walk in before you, and remembered how much of a hassle it is to keep your floors clean when every pathway on the planet is either sand or gravel.
“Hey, hey, hey, wipe your feet,” you said to R2.
R2 beeped and did a few circles over your doormat. Luke chuckled and then looked around, unsure of where to put the bags.
“Oh you can just put those by the couch. Thank you,” you said.
“Of course.”
The first thing you did was give Luke and R2 a house tour. It’s not a particularly large house, but it’s filled with precious trinkets you’ve collected over the years—many were gifts. It also used to be very lively with house plants, but with no one to water them over the past few months each one had shriveled up, threatening to crumble if touched. Even your succulent-like plants died, which you naïvely hoped the humidity of your planet would keep them going. Luke sensed your heart break a little when you noticed. He never knew how much you like plants, and kept a mental note, saving it for the next time you needed cheering up.
Once you got to your bedroom, you remembered the existence of something you kept from when you were about four or five years old. A gift given to you by a friend.
“Oh, you might get a kick out of this, Luke,” you said, pulling out one of your keepsake boxes from your closet.
As you shuffled through a bunch of old papers and cards, Luke stood sheepishly in your doorway, overtaken by a shyness he didn't often experience anymore. You're too focused on looking through the various sheets to notice. R2 beeped, purposefully with not enough warning, and crashed into Luke's legs, snapping his locked knees forward, making him take a few steps further in to keep his balance. A shade of pink crept onto Luke's cheeks. R2 explored your room while ignoring Luke’s quick glare, pretending he hadn't done that intentionally.
Laughing as you see it, you took a slightly crumpled piece of paper out of the box and handed it to Luke.
He failed to hold back a laugh as he saw it was a crayon drawing of what looked to be you and Leia as kids. It’s signed “BY LEIA” in the bottom corner, barely legible with some of the letters backwards. The likeness of the two of you had ended at the colours, making it all the more hilarious and adorable.
“I wonder if she remembers this,” you wondered aloud.
“She must. Her memories of you are how we recognized you as Force sensitive,” Luke started. “But we should definitely bring this back to remind her, just in case.”
You placed it aside and told R2 to pick a spot for his charging station. He glided over to the largest window in your house, next to the front door. You and Luke went to get it from the ship before setting it up.
“We can wait to unpack,” you said. “We should make sure we have food first, let me show you guys the village market.”
It wasn't too long of a walk, but you were glad you didn't decide to wait. You felt your stomach threaten to growl as you arrived.
When you told Luke about the village, he had imagined something more akin to the moisture farms on Tatooine but with much more plant life and water, so he was surprised to see the streets lined—albeit fairly sparsely—with food vendors selling various kinds of homegrown meals to cater to tourists. The rest of the village was covered in small plots of farmland growing vegetables and keeping livestock that were entirely new to him, and very familiar to you.
“In the morning they sell the individual ingredients they harvest here, and then they share what they don't sell with each other to make home cooked meals to sell in the evening,” you explained. “There's a few that just sell ingredients all day, though. Mostly essentials.”
A vendor shouted for you before Luke had a chance to respond.
“Hey, Reymir!” You squinted a little as you waved, and then turned to Luke and R2. “C’mon!”
The two of them followed you as you approached Reymir’s stand. He was a stocky guy—clearly a hard worker. His age showed a little more than the last time you saw him, and you could see his wife and kids back further on the farm, watering the crops. You were filled with nostalgia, and you can sense that Luke was, too. Despite Siolia being a drastically different planet than Tatooine, it was almost impossible for him not to be reminded of his childhood seeing families on farms like this. You stood close to him and subtly brushed your arm against his, knowing that it was a bittersweet memory for him.
“Long time no see! Are you back for long?” Reymir asked jovially, and as you answer he processed that Luke and R2 are with you. He laughed as he spoke. “Oh, who’s this? You’ve found a husband and had a kid?”
You knew that he was joking, but even through your laughter you failed to prevent the redness that creeped up on your cheeks. Luke became flustered as well, and as each of you noticed each other's embarrassment through the Force, you both became even more red. R2 just beeped happily.
“No, no, no, this is Luke, he’s been training me. And this is R2, he’s… yeah sure, he can be my kid,” you laughed.
R2 beeped again. You patted him on the head.
“Nice to meet you,” Luke said as he politely shook Reymir’s hand.
You noticed that, despite his formal smile, his cheeks were still glowing.
“My pleasure. Anyway, you must be here for some dinner,” Reymir said, putting together two meals of colourful fresh ingredients that Luke was unable to recognize. “Here, it’s on the house.”
Both you and Luke thanked him, and you placed down a small bag of Siolia’s currency, worth double as much as the meals he gave you.
“Here's your tip, nice to see you again,” you said, walking away with the meals before he could see how much is in the bag.
There was a little park nearby where you and Luke could sit and eat, and Luke was surprised at how nice the food was—especially the bright blue pepper-like vegetable. He wondered if milk was blue on your planet, as well. When you finished your meals, the three of you went to each stall that was still selling ingredients and bought enough for the next few days, having similar conversations to the one you had with Reymir with each vendor. Luke can’t help but feel warmed by seeing for himself what life is like on your home planet, and flattered at how many of the vendors had assumed the two of you were dating.
On your walk back to your place, the sun was setting. You took in the familiar sight of the sky changing from a bright, saturated blue to a mix of greens and pinks with hints of purple. Not many planets you visited had cool-toned sunsets like this. Luke was fascinated, not just by the colours but by your reaction to seeing it again. You seemed so refreshed and so settled at the same time. At a few points throughout the walk, you catch Luke staring at the sky. It was incredibly sweet how much he admired this simple thing about your home.
You reached your door and as you opened it you stared at R2 until he did his three little circles over your doormat.
“Thank you.”
R2 beeped.
Luke automatically helped you put away the ingredients you had both carried, making it a very quick task.
“Feel free to set your stuff up,” you said to Luke as you found some of your cleaning supplies, hitting your limit for how long you could stand the thin layer of dust that has built up on each and every shelf.
Luke went to grab his bag as he noticed you dusting, shifting his focus to that instead. He started helping you without a word.
“You don't have to do that,” you said.
“I don't have to do anything,” he responded with a smug look. Sometimes, when he knew that you were going to be difficult—usually about letting him help you with small tasks—he would choose to outmatch your stubbornness, turning it into a bit of a game.
You sighed. “I’m not making you clean my house.”
“You’re not making me do anything.” Luke smirked.
You pinched the bridge of your nose with your free hand and gave up. You heard a stifled chuckle from Luke’s direction. He knew that you knew that he did this on purpose.
“Where do you want me to sleep, anyway?” Luke asked.
“Hm? Oh, you can have the bed. I’ll take the couch.”
“You’re not sleeping on a couch when we're specifically here for you to relax.”
“Well, you’re my guest, so I’m not letting you sleep on the couch.”
Luke stopped dusting to dramatically place his hand on his hip. He looked at you with a brighter, even more smug expression. You ignored him, not even looking in his direction.
“Sooo…” Luke started, fully aware that he’s being a pain in the ass.
“So you can sleep outside? Slightly off my property?” You were not letting him get a rise out of you today, as endearing as his more playful side was. You tried to pretend you weren't having as much fun with this as he was.
“Fine, I’ll go sleep outside and bring in dirt and sand from my clothes each time I walk through the door.”
“No! No, you can take the bed.” He was winning.
“And you'll sleep…?” Luke trailed off as he tilted his head slightly upwards and raised his eyebrows slightly, trying to get you to finish his sentence.
“I know what you're doing.”
“What am I doing?” Luke asked rather playfully.
Your face got warm. What was he doing? He was trying way too hard at convincing you to share the bed for it to be a joke. You almost let that get to you, but you decided to at least try to make him just as flustered.
You dropped your tone a bit, speaking more delicately. “Do you actually want to share?”
His smug expression disappeared and his eyes widened slightly. You tried to hold back a laugh as his cheeks flush red. You failed.
“Yeah, we can share,” you said, still laughing.
You felt a little bad, feeling the wave of emotions you just put him through and feeling it land on embarrassment. Not bad enough to stop laughing, though.
R2 chimed in, beeping continuously in a manner similar to laughter.
“Can you believe this?” Luke said to R2.
R2 beeped, mimicking Luke.
You put your hand to your mouth in response to R2, you had never seen him do that before.
“Unbelievable,” said Luke as he shook his head, finding it hard not to laugh at R2.
You laughed more.
•••
Once everything was finally taken care of—the dust was gone and bags were unpacked—the three of you were beat from the long day. R2 headed to his charging station but chose to stare out the window for a while, instead. Then, you remembered something very important about your house. The bath.
“I'm taking a bath,” you hollered out, speeding to the refresher after grabbing your sleepwear.
You missed your own refresher so much. The biggest adjustment you had to make when you left was getting used to the sonic. The sonics were fine, they certainly got you clean but you truly missed showering with water, and you missed taking a nice warm bath even more. It would be a shame not to light every single candle you kept in there for the occasion.
Sinking into the now filled bath, you tried to relax amidst the warm water and dim candlelight, but you couldn't help but eavesdrop on a hushed conversation a certain someone was having with a very tired droid.
“You don't think I’ve upset her, right?”
Beeping.
“I know, I just hope I haven't made her uncomfortable.”
Beeping.
“Yes, I saw the look on her face after. And yes, I felt it with the Force, too, it's just… I know I’m being paranoid. I know that it doesn't ever bother her when I mess with her but she actually agreed to share her bed with me. I don't want to make her feel awkward, I just want her to be comfortable and I know she wouldn't ever give in and let me take the couch.”
Teasing beeps.
“Yeah, yeah, that too.”
That too? You raised an eyebrow and leaned towards the side of the bath, listening more intently.
R2’s beeping gets slower.
“You should get some rest, R2. Thanks.”
Damn.
Though you wanted to know more, you were quite content knowing how considerate Luke was being, especially since it was about you. On the other hand, you didn't want him agonizing over it, you felt like you had to ease his mind in some way or another.
After your bath, you put your sleepwear on and arranged your hair how you always did before bed. You blew out the incredible amount of candles and headed to your room. You knocked on the door before entering and saw Luke, in his sleepwear as well, shyly sitting on the edge of your bed. He’d definitely been agonizing, but he looked really cute. With the Force you felt that your presence somehow managed to both calm him and make him more anxious. You tried your hardest to act completely normal, like you had heard nothing. You knew bringing attention to it would just make him feel more awkward.
“I’m taking this side,” you said, getting into your bed. You had forgotten how comfortable it was.
Luke couldn't work up the courage to move until you patted the other side of the bed. He really was agonizing, it was very unlike him to be so shaken about something he knows is okay.
He got in next to you, keeping as much distance from your form as possible. You were tempted to tell him that it’s okay to move closer so he could be more comfortable, but you didn't want to put him on the spot.
“Goodnight,” he said, slightly more delicately than he usually did.
“Goodnight,” you said back. You took a few moments to figure out what to say next. “Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for all of this. It's really nice. And…” You searched for the right words, just hoping to calm him. “And I appreciate your company a lot.”
His heartbeat spiked, which you were instantly aware of.
“Of course. I'm glad to be here,” he said. He had thought about ending his sentence with “with you”, but he had enough to ruminate about for the night. Though, he was much more settled now.
The both of you exchanged goodnights once more before the two of you fell asleep.