Lightheaded: Chapter 2: Down, Down, Uncle Luke!
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 02: Down, Down, Uncle Luke
“What do you think, Jacen? Shall we let Jaina down?” Jacen was seated Forcefully on his uncle’s right shoulder, watching Jaina hover above him upside down. Both the twins were giggling uncontrollably at their uncle’s antics.
“Down, down, Uncle Luke!” Jaina cried.
“Can you try getting right side up first by yourself? Remember how I taught you to push around the Force the other day? Try to get upright. Can you do that, Jaina?” Jaina looked thoughtful at that. “I’ll try.” With a frown on her face, her body wobbled a little as she poked around in the Force, trying to right herself while floating in mid-air. She manoeuvred until she was horizontal, but by then, a sheen of sweat had already formed on her brow.
Luke turned to his nephew. “Could you help her out?” Jacen nodded, and Luke felt him reach out through the Force to lend his twin a hand. Her furrowed brow cleared, and in no time, Jaina had not only righted herself, but had managed, with Jacen’s help, to bring herself lightly down on the floor again. Jacen then nudged himself off of Luke’s shoulder and slid to the floor as well.
Then both the twins looked up at their uncle expectantly.
Luke tried to look blasé about their excellent Force exercise. “Not bad, not bad…” Their small faces fell. “Not bad if you were a Jedi Master, but it was … very excellent work for you guys!” And with that pronouncement he proceeded to scoop them up, screaming in laughter, under his arms and hauled them physically to the dining table.
“Excellent work, both of you! Now wash up for dinner and help to set the table,” he let them go and they scampered off to the ‘fresher as Leia looked up from the news flimsy that she was reading. Luke flopped down on the couch beside her.
“They’re growing so fast! I can’t believe that they’re eight already… it seems too soon, and I’m not done enjoying their cuteness yet…” Luke made a face at his own sentimentality.
Leia just raised an eyebrow. “I can’t wait till you have children of your own. Han and I were perpetually worried when the children were younger - don’t you remember the continual hiding, the planets that we had to send them off to, just to ensure that they were safe? I for one, am glad that those days are over. And I’m sure Winter is, too. All that hiding.” She shook her head in distaste.
Luke regarded her for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m glad they’re training in the Force - they’re getting better at it, and the twin connection really helps speed up the learning process. It’s like what Jacen learns, Jaina picks up subconsciously once they link minds. It’s amazing.”
“Sort of like what we would have had if we had trained together,” he tilted his head to look at her when caught the wistful note in Leia’s tone. She was staring at the family holo on the wall. Leia made sure that one holo was taken once a year, and the last one had the entire Organa-Solo clan (plus one Skywalker) decked out in their finest. Luke patted his twin’s knee. “What’s done is done, and we’re all here.” Leia turned her eyes away from the holo and looked into her brother’s eyes. He smiled. “Now, let’s eat.”
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Han returned home, Anakin in tow, a half hour after both sets of twins sat down for dinner. He sighed in exasperation when he saw Luke.
“No wonder Anakin suddenly wanted to return home from the carnival, after a day of ‘I-don’t-wanna-go-home-Dad’. So ‘Uncle Luke’, what have you brought for us in terms of presents?” Still in the middle of a huge bear-hug with Anakin, Luke simply rolled his eyeballs at Han. “Nothing but the best … I brought you the head of the Jedi Praxeum. What more could you ask for?”
Han grunted, unimpressed. “Well, if this head of the Jedi Praxeum could have rustled up a nice present of Corellian whiskey, the head of this household would have been more kindly disposed toward preparing the guest room for him.”
“I’ve already done that myself.”
“Oh.” Han suddenly smiled. “In that case, welcome back, kid. How long are you here for?”
“Two days, maybe more. Droid testing at the Institute,” Luke said, in anticipation of his next question.
“Counting today?” Han asked.
“I don’t know, really, it all depends on the Institute. I’ve already commed Kam and Tionne to let them know that I might be here a while. They’ve got everything under control anyway, so there’s no real rush for me to go back to Yavin.”
“Please stay longer, Uncle Luke!” Anakin hopped up and down in anticipation. “It’s the holidays, and there’s the carnival at Millennia Square, and we can all go tomorrow!” “Yeah, let’s all go tomorrow! Please Uncle Luke!” Jaina and Jacen added their entreaties to Anakin’s.
Fixing his gaze on Anakin, Luke lifted an eyebrow. “Didn’t you just spend the whole day with your dad there today, Anakin?”
“But you weren’t there!”
At that, Han looked a bit put-out. “Hey, what am I, chopped liver?” He folded his arms and mock-pouted at his youngest.
“But Daaad…it’s Uncle Luke!” Anakin got off his seat and put his arms around his Father’s waist, trying to mollify him. Giving an exaggerated sigh, Han threw his hands up in fake despair. “That’s alright, I’ll just be second best… or third, since I figure your mother’s probably the second.”
Leia tried to suppress a grin at that, but wound up looking extremely smug instead. “Oh, get that look off your face, Highnessness.” At that, Leia’s suppressed grin became a full one instead. She decided to oblige her children, and turned to her brother.
“Why don’t you take the twins to the carnival tomorrow? Anakin can’t go,” she looked pointedly at her father’s namesake, “because he already spent the day there today, and I suspect, all his allotted amount of credits for this carnival.” Anakin, who had opened his mouth and looked like he was going to protest, shut it with a snap and started pouting.
“Well,” Luke sat back in his chair. “I do have two more droids to test, but that shouldn’t take longer than the morning. How about this, I go out, do the droid testing, come back here for lunch, and…” looking at the twins, “… fetch both of you?” Two pairs of shining eyes swivelled from their Uncle Luke’s face toward their mother’s. She nodded.
“Yes, that would be a …”
“Yaaay!”
“…good idea.” Leia finished wryly. “Now, let’s finish dinner, then we can get started on that holodrama we borrowed.”
Dinner ended without further incident.