Work Text:
Almost everyone in their little corner of Tatooine underestimates Luke. Biggs knows better. He knows Luke. There’s something a little thrilling about that. Knowing Luke is like having a secret. Sometimes it’s maddening—why is he the only one who can see the truth? But most of the time, it’s something that makes Luke seem like his and his alone.
Luke is special in a way that no one else seems to understand. It’s not just that he’s the best pilot that Biggs has ever seen—although he is. It’s not just that he’s the kindest, bravest person Biggs knows—although he is. It’s not just that Luke is the most beautiful boy Biggs knows—although he is and he’d never admit it to anyone. It’s more than all of that.
Everyone knows that Biggs will go off to the Imperial Academy and do great things, but no one seems to understand: Luke is the one who’s destined for greatness. Biggs doesn’t know how he knows, but he does. Maybe it’s the first time he sees Luke fly. Luke does things in a skyhopper that shouldn’t be humanly possible, flies places no one else can get to, pulls maneuvers that Biggs—who until Luke, considered himself the best pilot in the area—never even imagined.
Luke is definitely something special. Which is why leaving him behind is going to break Biggs’s heart.
His acceptance to the Academy had come through that morning. Luke’s uncle had held his up—to no one’s surprise except Luke’s—so Luke is going to get left behind. Not just by Biggs, but by the only ones of their friends who are worth a damn. Fixer and Camie will stick around, because Fixer and Camie are never gonna go anywhere, but both of them treat Luke like an annoyance. And there’s nothing Biggs can do about it.
He has to tell Luke that he’s leaving. Luke knows, of course. Everybody knows. But Biggs still owes it to him to tell him anyway.
Biggs does the only thing he can think of. He swipes several of the butter pastries his mom made that morning. He wonders if she made them on purpose—they’re Luke’s favorite, and butter is a rare treat even for the Darklighter family. It’s almost unheard of on the Lars farmstead. He wraps them carefully and climbs into his speeder, heading for the south ridge where Luke is most likely already at work, tinkering endlessly with his uncle’s nearly-useless vaporators.
Just the thought irritates Biggs, and he doesn’t want to be irritated when he faces Luke. But still! Most of those vaporators are older than Biggs, but Owen Lars has been saying for years that next year is the year they’ll pay off. The worst part is, now he’s got Luke saying it too.
You know why.
He doesn’t, not really. Just overheard conversations between his parents, and putting some pieces together. The story everyone knows is that Owen’s brother died and left his son orphaned and in the hands of his aunt and uncle. There’s more to it. Biggs is almost positive. His parents had talked in hushed voices long into the night, about mysterious, powerful visitors to the Lars homestead, years and years before. Royalty, even. A queen had visited them. When Biggs had first heard that, he’d been younger, and had spent the better part of a year convinced that Luke was an orphaned prince of some far off planet, and that someday, his family would come and take him back.
Of course, now that he’s older, that’s ridiculous. Queens don’t leave their children for farmers to raise. But whoever Luke’s parents were, Owen Lars is determined to keep Luke on Tatooine at all costs. So he does the one thing that Biggs can’t quite forgive: he plays on Luke’s sense of devotion and duty, and keeps dangling the hope of “next year” in front of him. And Owen will keep right on doing that until one year, Luke stops asking and settles for life as a moisture farmer.
Biggs can’t understand it. Luke’s aunt and uncle both love him, clearly, but they’re going to keep him in a cage shaped like the pattern of moisture vaporators on the Lars farm.
He’s coming up on the first of those vaporators now, and he can see a speeder off in the distance. Luke.
Luke spots him long before he’s within yelling distance, and grabs his hat from his head and starts waving it. A rush of warm affection makes Biggs smile. That stupid hat.
“What are you doing out here?” Luke yells, once Biggs is close enough. Biggs isn’t gonna yell over the noise of the wind and the speeder, so doesn’t answer until he pulls up and shuts down his speeder next to Luke’s.
“You,” Biggs says, hopping out of the speeder and going to Luke, “look like you could use a break.” Luke’s about to put his hat back on, but Biggs snatches it from him before he can.
“Hey! My lucky hat!” He dives at Biggs, who has just enough of a height advantage that he can hold it out of reach. Without the hat, Luke’s sandy hair spills everywhere, shaggy and floppy and soft-looking, and that’s exactly why Biggs hates the hat.
He snorts. “Lucky for who, the sand fleas?” He stretches his arm higher, trying not to think about how Luke collides with him at every attempt to reach the hat, how he’s close enough that Biggs could—
Rather than continue the thought, Biggs grins down at him. “I’d be doing you and the rest of Anchorhead a favor if I burned this damn thing.”
“Don’t you dare!” Luke says something else that would scandalize his Aunt Beru. Even Biggs raises his eyebrows. Luke is getting really mad—which isn’t like him—so Biggs hands him the hat.
“I was just kidding, skyboy. I’d never hurt your precious hat.” He gives Luke a shove to the shoulder in place of a hug. “What’s got you so riled this morning?”
“You heard today, didn’t you,” Luke says. “From the Academy.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Biggs says instead of answering. “My mom was baking this morning, you know.”
It’s never that difficult to pry Luke away from work, and his smile hits Biggs like a punch in the chest. “Butter pastries?” Luke asks.
Biggs grins. “Would I steal anything but the best for you?”
“All right. I can go for a little bit.” He follows Biggs to Biggs’s speeder, and climbs in, picking up the box of stolen pastries and putting it in his lap. He starts to open the box, but Biggs smacks his hand.
“You gotta wait.”
Luke sticks his tongue out at Biggs and Biggs shakes his head. He starts the speeder, knowing there’s really only one place they can go, one place they should go, at a time like this. Biggs’s speeder groans as they make the climb, but at the top, they can see for klicks in every direction, and they’re perched right on the edge of Beggar’s Canyon. There’s some scrub brush that is the closest thing to shade, and they sprawl there in the morning sun and open the box of stolen goodies.
“I can’t stay long,” Luke says. “If Uncle Owen comes by and sees my speeder and me not near it, he’ll probably think the sand people took me.”
“In that case, I’d say you can stay as long as you want—he’ll be relieved no matter when you come back.” Biggs grins over at him, watching Luke eat. He pauses after each bite, closing his eyes and savoring it. Something about it makes Biggs feel warm in his chest—it’s not… it’s not like wanting him, it’s just… seeing Luke taken care of, enjoying something. And knowing that Biggs is the one responsible for it.
“Okay, come on,” Luke says, swallowing a mouthful. “I know what you’re gonna tell me, so out with it.”
Biggs sighs, dusting his hands off before flinging a handful of pebbles into the canyon. “The acceptance came this morning.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Luke shoves his arm. “You’re getting off this rock!”
“Yeah,” Biggs admits, “but…” He tilts his head up and squints at Luke. “Just wish you were coming with me, kid.”
“I know.” Luke is dejected, Biggs knows he is, but he can see how Luke is trying to hide it. “But I’ll be there with you next year. Uncle Owen promised.”
If Luke doesn’t know that Uncle Owen is going to dangle that promise in front of him until the end of time, Biggs isn’t going to be the one to tell him. “Sure thing,” he says instead. “Trailing behind me, just like always.”
“Just wait till I catch up,” Luke says, with the steely, determined glint in his eyes that Biggs has come to love. “Hope you like the taste of dust.”
“I dunno, I’ve never had it before,” he shoots back. “Cause some people are too busy trying to scrape paint onto the canyon wall to give me a real challenge.”
They grin easily at each other, and it’s good. Times like this, Biggs can look at Luke without it being weird. Are his eyes blue or green right now? The way they seem to change is a mystery to him. Blue. Heartbreakingly blue and now he’s staring. When had Luke gone from being his scrawny best friend to… this? To this good-hearted, determined, funny man with galaxies in his eyes and Biggs’s heart resting squarely in his sunbrowned, work-hardened hands.
“Biggs?” Luke’s voice is distant, a little puzzled-sounding, like a voice in a dream.
“Yeah?” Even Biggs’s own voice sounds like it’s underwater. Neither of them have looked away. It’s then that Biggs realizes how close Luke is—had he been that close all along? Had one of them moved? He doesn’t have any time to think about it. Somehow, without him intending it, he’s kissing Luke. Or maybe Luke is kissing him. Maybe that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that neither of them is pulling away.
Luke’s mouth is like sunshine, sweet with stolen treats and startlingly soft. They kiss for what feels like forever but is over way too soon. They back away, and Biggs can’t meet his eyes at first.
“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Luke speaks first. “I just—the way you were looking at me, I thought—I shouldn’t have—”
“Yes you should have.” Biggs looks up at that, aching to see the uncertainty on Luke’s face. Then he laughs at them both. “Seventeen years we’ve known each other, and we gotta wait until I’m about to leave to figure this out.”
Luke ducks his head with a shy smile. “I figured it out a long time ago. For me, anyway. Wasn’t sure about you.”
“Oh hell, Luke, then we’re even dumber than I thought, ‘cause I’ve known for a long time too.” He shakes his head, still unable to keep from smiling in spite of it all. “Lotta wasted time.”
“We’ve got a couple of months before you leave, right? So we’ll make the most of them.” And something about the way Luke looks at him when he says that steals the breath right out of Biggs’s body. It’s a look that says maybe Luke isn’t quite as innocent has Biggs has always thought.
Biggs swallows, or tries to, his mouth gone dry. “Right. And—and even after I go, I’ll be back to visit, and there’s the holonet.” They’re really going to do this. Of all the times he’d thought about it, he’d never thought it would be this… simple.
Luke stands up, holds out a hand to pull Biggs to his feet. “But if I don’t wanna get grounded for those months, I gotta get back to work.”
Reluctantly, Biggs stands, and they dust themselves off, gathering up the remains of the pastries. Before he gets into Biggs’s speeder, Luke pulls him close for another kiss, and it’s full of a promise that Biggs hadn’t even let himself contemplate before.
Whatever Luke’s grand destiny is—and Biggs would bet his life that there is one—he feels something clicking into place around them, like his role in it has just been locked in and fixed. As he starts up the speeder, he’s smiling. “Come on, let’s get you back.”
The way he feels right now, he’s never gonna stop smiling.