Lightheaded: Chapter 8: These Boots Are Made For Walking
Standard Disclaimer: These characters belong to G. Lucas and T. Zahn. In other words: not mine.
Dedication: To anyone who loves hot chocolate.
Rating: NC-17/M
Spoilers/Timeline: After The Corellian Trilogy but before "Vision of the Future".
A/N: Do read and review.
Lightheaded: Chapter 8: These Boots Are Made For Walking
Chapter 08: These Boots Are Made For Walking
“Urgh, Skywalker, that was bad.”
Luke grinned. “I know.”
Mara finished her drink and started fiddling about with her glass. She looked at ease, and Luke decided to take the risk of stirring up a hornet’s nest.
“Mara, have you been watching the holotube recently?”
She favoured him with an amused gaze. “So…I hear you’ve been spotted with a brunette recently. Anyone I know?”
He frowned in confusion even as he felt the knot at the bottom of his stomach that he didn’t know he had dissipate. “You’re not mad?”
Sounding surprised, Mara asked, “Should I be? There’s nothing to link that woman to me, and nobody’s been snooping around me. I should be rather pleased, in fact. Shows that my disguises are effective… but I guess I’ll have to retire that wig for a while.”
“Oh.” He hadn’t thought of it that way. In fact, he thought that Mara might have been rather angry at the holopress for invading her privacy like that, but after her explanation, he realised that she was right - they didn’t recognise her, and they wouldn’t be bothering her for information… unless, of course, they found out who she was.
“Anyhow,” Mara continued over his thoughts, “I might not even need to retire that wig, considering how many women have gone straight brunette over the last two days. Amazing what lengths women will go to in order to get your attention,” she smirked.
Luke frowned in confusion. “Why would women want to go brunette? Assuming that I’m already with someone, which I’m not,” he said swiftly, with a quick glance at Mara. “Whether or not they’re brunette or blonde or redheaded doesn’t make any difference to their status, does it?”
Mara gave a small whuff of laughter. “Skywalker, are you just trying to be dense, or are you really that dumb?”
Luke grinned, and decided to indulge her. “So I’m dumb. Enlighten me, Master Jade.”
Mara gave him a quick warning glare before answering him. “They all figure that it’s your preferred hair colour for choosing your ladies. So in the event that the ‘mystery woman’ doesn’t work out, you’ll be more inclined to pick another brunette. They just want to be ready.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Luke exclaimed.
“That’s what I thought too. Hey, do you have that kid’s comlink frequency?”
Startled at the sudden change in topic, he asked, “Why?”
Mara sat back in her chair and stretched out her legs. “I think he wanted to meet Karrde, and since he’s on planet…”
With a small smile on his face, Luke teased her. “Why, Miss Jade, I never knew you to be such an altruistic patron of the university. Will you be sponsoring the medical wing next, with next quarter’s profits?”
Mara waggled a finger in front of Luke’s face. “Now now, sarcasm does not befit the head of the Jedi Praxeum.”
Grabbing her finger to still it, he shook his head at her. “Neither does finger shaking befit the Emperor’s Hand.”
“Former Emperor’s Hand, Jedi.”
“Whatever.” He released her finger. She massaged it absently while she pushed her chair back slowly to stand up, the legs making a soft keen as it dragged across the floor.
“Well, Skywalker, it’s been fun, as always, but unlike Jedi masters, some of us actually have to work. Time to kill, people to hound, paper to push… or am I getting them mixed up??” Mara pretended to look innocent at that last statement.
“It was good seeing you. Thanks for the holostills, the kids will love them. Here’s Isaar’s com frequency,” he hurriedly scribbled the number down on a piece of caf tissue.
“Thanks. See you around, Skywalker.” And with a quick turn of the heel, she left, leaving Luke with three empty glasses of cold chocolate.
-----
Luke returned to Han and Leia’s apartment to find that a pressed Jedi robe set had been laid out on the guest bed, with a huge note:
‘Pickup at 1930hrs, Coruscant Standard Time. BE READY, or you’ll be babysitting all three of them for a month while Han and I take a vacation.’
“Alright, dear sister, I get the holo,” Luke murmured under his breath, amused. Leaving his room, he wandered about the empty apartment, the children having gone off somewhere with Chewy and their dad. The droids were nowhere to be seen - probably down at maintenance or wherever it was that droids hung out at. He had about three hours to pass before the pickup time, so he sat in the middle of the living room and started running through the Force drill that he had developed for use in Leia’s apartment.
First, he meditated lightly, immersing himself in the Force to just reconnect. After about half an hour of that, he stretched his Force reach as far out and as wide as he could manage, feeling for bumps in the Force terrain, signalling a Force sensitive person’s presence. He found Leia easily, thinking hard over something. He slowly made his presence known to her, and felt her mental swipe at him. It also felt like she was reminding him about the reception that night. He sent her a quick affirmative, and set up his shields again, not wanting to intrude. He found a couple of other Force-sensitives within the Imperial Palace, and then stretched out towards the central business district, locating a number of Gotals, a few humans, and three Twileks, all only slightly attuned to the Force, but creating a blip in his mental radar nonetheless.
He found Mara as well, but didn’t uncloak his presence as he knew he would be dealt with the Force equivalent of a slap if she found him suddenly wandering about in her head. He stretched out even further, and found the children at the spaceport, learning about the Falcon’s innards with Han and Chewy. A soft smile found its way onto his face as he touched their minds gently without uncloaking himself. Jaina and Jacen didn’t respond to his touch, but Luke felt Anakin’s attention waver from his father’s technical explanations and turn inward as he sought an answer to the sudden soft pressure in his brain. Luke withdrew from Jaina and Jacen’s minds, but stayed in Anakin’s to see if Anakin could locate or identify him.
Uncle Luke? Luke felt the tentative query come, directed at him. He sent an affirmative, and a short burst of pride to Anakin, and felt his nephew’s pleasure radiating in the Force. He gently withdrew from Anakin’s mind, and emerged from his meditation. Glancing at the chrono, he was surprised to see that he had been meditating for only an hour.
‘That leaves me another two hours,’ Luke thought to himself, even as he decided to move on to his next exercise - kinetics, or (as Luke privately thought to himself) the Cleanup Leia’s Apartment exercise. He started small, picking up the children’s playthings which were lying in corners, and putting them into the hardboard boxes that Han and Leia had designated for their children’s toys. Making sure that he separated Jaina’s ‘girl toys’ with Anakin and Jacen’s toys, he finished his cleanup, and moved on to shifting about the furniture against the walls, leaving empty space around him - filled with dustballs, and the odd stray toy that had fallen underneath the couches and chairs. He picked up the rest of the toys, then stood up to activate the cleaning droid.
Bending over to locate the droid activation switch, he felt Han, Chewy and the children’s presences draw nearer. Straightening up and smiling, he opened the door in advance to let them in.
“Uncle Luke!” Anakin was the first one through the door, and Luke scooped him up in his arms, laughing. “Uncle Luke, was it you? Did you call me in my head?” Luke looked at him and nodded, marvelling again at his own ability to feel so much love for one so small. “See Jaya! I told you it was Uncle Luke! And you and Jasa didn’t feel him!” Anakin crowed over his small victory over his siblings.
“Hey, don’t do that, Anakin, it’s not nice,” Luke chided softly as he let Anakin down. “Be a gracious winner. How would you like it if someone else won something which you didn’t and said that?”
“Okay Uncle Luke!” The chiding seemed to wash over Anakin without penetrating his grey matter, and he scampered away into the kitchen to get a snack. Jacen was holding Han’s hand, and Jaina, Chewy’s. “Hello Chewy, Han. What was the lesson today?”
[The ‘fresher and disposal systems.] Chewy growled. [The cubs need to know that it’s not always the hyperdrive or the turrets that need fixing.]
“But it was fun!” Jaina shook the hand that she was holding. “Can we go again tomorrow?”
“We’ll see, honey. For now, please go take a bath and get that engine oil smell off,” Han said as Jacen and Jaina obediently went to their room. [Not to mention other smells as well.] Chewy urfed softly at his own joke.
“Hey, you don’t smell too great either, Fuzzball.” Han said sardonically. “Looks like it’s the shower for you as well.” Chewy growled at that, but headed for his own room’s sonic shower anyway.
Han turned to Luke. “Well, it certainly looks like you’ve been busy. What, couldn’t wait till the droid activated itself?”
“I had some time to kill, and I needed some Force exercise anyway, so I just cleaned up a little.” Luke regarded his handiwork, then glanced at the chrono.
“Oh stars! I’ve got to get ready myself, or Leia’s going to kill me! Are you coming to the reception too?” Luke started to head towards the guest quarters.
“Nope, I managed to beg off this one. You’re on your own, kid.” Han grinned that lopsided grin of his.
-----
“Very nice, brother. How’d you like it? I had it tailor-made.”
Luke had to admit that the inner cream robe fitted him like a glove without being too tight. Leia had also instructed her tailor to update the brown Jedi cloak, shortening it so that it didn’t sweep the floor, and creating thinner arms so that it just managed to avoid looking like an oversized bathrobe. The cowl was still in place, which helped to identify the robe as a Jedi robe, but the robe’s material was of a significantly higher quality than the rough weave used to make the regular robes.
All in all, Luke thought he looked pretty good!
“Stop preening and put on your boots so we can go.”
“Yes, mom.”