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They do not know their father.
Leia has known this for as long as she can remember.
They know him in the way everyone knows him: as the Emperor’s tightly leased mad dog, as the name rarely uttered in fear of invocation, as the large, towering figure that refuses to even touch them. Lord Vader is their father, but they do not know him.
Leia knows Luke though.
They were raised together, after all. In the high apartment towers in Coruscant, leagues away from the Imperial Palace, Luke is probably the only person in the galaxy she knows more intimately than she knows herself. Luke and his star-bright smile, his golden sun-dropped hair, and his dimples and freckles hidden along his skin, Leia knows him.
They only had each other, too. With an every-revolving door of nannies and tutors, the best the Empire can offer, and their father a distant, nebulous being, more reputation than man, they had been hidden away in the towers in Coruscant, far from anyone’s reach. Leia remembers in the younger days when she and Luke would huddle together against the high-reaching windows to look down at the Coruscanti sky and watch the starships ascend far, far away. They used to make up stories of the places the ships would be going, coming from, what they saw, and who they’d fight, making exhilarating tales of make-believe. Of one day imagining it would be them on those ships, hand in hand, with no one else needed in the world to accompany them to explore the galaxy.
Imagining they will no longer be chained to this decayed place.
Leia sighs. Sleep eludes her tonight, like most nights, and in these darkened hours, she finds herself reminiscing the most.
She turns her head. Beside her, sleeping soundly, is Luke. His face is turned to her, mouth partly opened, hair framing the tanned slopes of his cheekbones and falling into his eyes. The naked skin of his chest is soft as she runs her fingers along.
He is far too kind in several ways she is not. Naive, trusting, and restless. Things that would let him be eaten whole if shown to the wrong people, regardless if he sees the viper nest for what it is. She would say she hates him a little for it, but that wouldn’t be true: in fact, it scares her.
Leia moves closer, slipping her legs within his as she rests her head against his chest. There’s a steady, strong heartbeat thumping against her ear, easing the tension in her body because it means he is still here. He is still with her, even though their father’s visits with Luke are becoming more frequent and though he tries to hide it, how distraught he is in the aftermath. A boy who always wears his heart on his sleeve.
She presses a kiss against that beating heart, wishing she can give him more strength and protection than she can offer. A sleepy arm shifts then, curls around her back and pulls her closer against him, warming something deep in her chest.
“Y’know, I can hear you think,” Luke says, voice sleep-thick and heavy.
“I know.”
“What’re you thinking about?”
Leia turns her face up to him. He’s looking at her, his eyes like deep wells, utterly open and full of emotion. She doesn’t have to crane her neck far because Luke meets her halfway, kissing her so sweetly her words nearly leave her.
The kiss is languid and soft and neither makes a move to deepen it. When it’s over, her words return to her.
“We should run away,” she says, her lips still hovering over Luke’s, continuing to meet his gaze. “Together, like we always said we would. It’s time.”
Luke’s eyes are always so open. Leia watches the conflict build behind them and she knows what he’s thinking – what may make him stay.
“I know you care about him, but think of me. Think of you. He’s training you to be his weapon, not his son. He’s making you like him, to do those cruelties – how can you help him, if you become him?”
“I should try.”
Her hand cups his cheek and guides his head toward her until their foreheads touch. There is so much love in those eyes of his, love and pain. “Not here,” Leia whispers. “In the heart of the wrongdoings in this terrible galaxy, nothing can be done here. I fear I’ll lose you to it, that you’ll lose yourself. I can’t stand the thought. Luke, please, run away with me.”
Leia holds her breath for a long time as she watches how his eyes change, scattering across emotions of heartbreak for their father, love for her, and then resignation for himself. When the arm around her squeezes her briefly in reassurance does she let her breath go. “Okay,” he finally says. “Okay. We’ll go.”
They kiss long after that. Peppering each other with it, pulling each other closer, as relief fills their veins. Tonight they will rejoice and by morning, they will be gone and free from the Empire’s hold.
Because all they need is each other, in this endless galaxy.
Because all they know is each other, and that’s all they ever need.