Stars and Sabers

Don't Leave Me

"My lightsaber's gone!" he exclaims. I smile as I turn it over in my hands behind my back. Maybe I could sneak it into a compartment in R2. R2 won't complain about it. He'll probably just tell Luke that he has it.

"Lanike Mallix," Leia Organa's voice floats soothingly through the air, "You're just the person I've been looking for."

"I am?" I ask in surprise, trying to think if I've done anything seriously wrong or anything great recently.

"Yes, can you explain why 3P0 is on the Falcon?" Leia asks. I can hear Luke fighting back his chuckles from behind me. He comes up to stand next to me.

"I must have misheard about a translation being needed on the Falcon," I say with a lie, "Sorry if that wasn't the case."

"You're a terrible liar," Leia says with a roll of her eyes. She smiles at Luke before giving him a hug and saying, "Good luck on your mission."

"Thanks. I'll do my best," Luke replies. I feel my cheeks flush red at Leia hugging Luke but I smile kindly at her anyways.

"Lanike, come to the Command Center after they leave. There may be some research you can do or something you can do to help support the mission from here," Leia says, a polite smile on her face. Her eyes tell me something else though. She's jealous that I can hang around Luke so freely while she has business to intend to. Oh well, the perks of being a nobody and the issues of being a princess and a Rebellion leader. Luke goes back to looking for his lightsaber.

"Lani, I'm pretty sure I just had it. Where did it go?" he complains kind of to me and kind of to himself. I love it when he complains to me like he wants me to respond but really, he's complaining to no one in particular. It's one of his cute little mannerisms that he has. Turning my back to Luke, I turn Luke's lightsaber over in my hands, running my thumbs across all of the individual grooves. I wish I had one of my own but Obi Wan didn't have an extra besides his own which he kept for himself. Obi-Wan told me that I could build one but that I wasn't far enough along in my Jedi training to do that. Luke and I haven't been working too much on that lately which is something we should try to do again in our spare time.

Our increasingly less spare time.

"I'm sure you'll be fine without it," I say as I hide it behind my back so he won't notice. Luke keeps looking around until his gaze meets mine.

"You have it," he says quickly, stepping close to me. I feel a tiny smirk slide onto my face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lie. Luke starts to chuckle.

"Yes you do. Stop trying to lie, Lani," he says with a laugh, "Can I have it?"

"I've never actually held one before," I say pulling it out from behind my back, "You're not going to need it on this mission, are you?"

"You never know," Luke replies, "I haven't actually been in a real fight where I've had to use a lightsaber. I haven't been training much either."

"That's why I don't think you'll need it," I reply as I find the button that ignites it. I press the button and grin at the blue blade that springs forth.

"Easy," Luke replies, "Don't slice any of my ship or I'll have to fix it myself instead of the technicians."

"You wouldn't have a problem doing that," I say as I carefully wave the shiny blue blade around. It's super heavy to hold. I'm sure Luke has an easier time than I do with it but it's so hard for me to hold. Luke chuckles and walks up behind me.

"Here," he says, taking it from me, "like this." He demonstrates how to hold it with one hand over the other. Luke walks up behind me again and puts it in my hands. I try to hold it just like he had and Luke quickly puts his hands over mine. I feel some sort of a shock run through my body at his touch. Why does this always happen whenever he touches me?? He carefully helps me wave it gently up and down.

"How do you do this in a real fight?" I ask. Luke shrugs.

"I don't know, but I get the feeling we're both going to have to learn how to be really good with lightsabers," he replies as he tries to take it from me.

"Don't leave me," I say as I latch on tightly to it. Luke sighs from behind me. The call for the pilots to man their planes sounds through the Rebel Base. 

"I have to," Luke replies, "but I'll come back, train with this and teach you how to use it."

"I'm holding you to that, Skywalker," I call as I let Luke take the lightsaber in his own hands. He waves it around for a couple of seconds before shutting it off and putting it away.

Although the last time he tried to teach me how to do something...it didn't go very well. He tried to teach me how to fly his T-16 back on Tatoonie one day. I'm scared of flying. The only time I'm okay is if Luke's flying. It took some convincing on Luke's part to get me comfortable on the Falcon the first time we were on it. Now, I'm okay with it but I don't like to fly unless Luke's with me. Eventually, I think I'll be okay helping Han and Chewie on missions but not now. I step back as R2 starts getting the X-wing more prepared than it was previously. Luke looks up at him and smiles before turning back to me.

"I hope Leia lets you help out with the mission," he says as we step closer.

"Me too. Stay safe, okay? I don't want something to happen to you," I say, "Don't do anything reckless."

"I never do that," Luke protests.

"You tried to teach me how to fly your T-16," I remind him. Luke thinks for a second.

"Okay but neither one of us knew how that was going to turn out," he replies with a chuckle.

"True, just don't do anything crazy. I need someone to teach me how to use a lightsaber," I say with a smile.

"Nah, you just want me to come back so, I'll be here," Luke responds with a soft smile on his face. He puts a hand on my shoulder and we start to move closer to each other.

Is this really happening? Are we actually going to kiss?

"Hey kid! Get in your cockpit! We don't have all day!" Han shouts from across the way. Luke and I both pull apart suddenly as if the other person was on fire. His hand is still on my shoulder, keeping me from going too far away. He pulls me into a huge hug instead. His cheek rests on the top of my head. We pull apart after a brief moment. The other pilots are all getting into their cockpits.

"Bye," I say as I start to walk further back into base.

"See ya, Lani," Luke calls out as he climbs into the cockpit. The technicians begin to get the group ready for take off. I move towards the back of the hanger watching as the X-wings close up and exit the base.

Please come back to me, Luke. Please come back to me.

I need you.

AN:/ Yay!! Two updates in two days!! Also adorable Luke and Jalani fluff. I love these two a lot. I wanted to do one at the very beginning of their friendship and in this one, they're like 20ish. Somewhere in between 19 and 21 but, I was leaning more towards 20 because it's been a year since the Death Star happened at this point. I'm going to make a Part II/ follow up when he gets back and they do some lightsaber training. As for whether or not they're a couple at this point is up in the air. That's kind of up to you as the reader to decide what you want them to be at this point. :) Also threw an almost kiss just because they've been friends for about seven years at this point in the story so, I thought it would be appropriate. The next oneshot/story will happen right after this one. If you want to hear the story about Luke teaching Jalani how to fly the T-16, feel free to request it and I'll do it eventually. I'm also trying to keep these stories/oneshots a little bit shorter just because. They might get longer as lightsaber fights happen and Lani starts to participate in more actual missions. We'll see. :) I'm having a lot of fun with this book and I love this chapter for the fluff. Hope you enjoyed it too. Besides, we could all use some good fluff these days. Thanks for doing whatever it is you do and even reading this book. It means a lot to me. See you around, friends!!

-Aisling