Title: Heart of a Giant
Paring: Luke Skywalker X Reader
Warnings: none
Spoilers: none
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"I bet you probably can't get ______ _______ to notice you," Han Solo taunts.
Everyone but Chewbacca, Luke and Han are asleep, crawled up in the bunk in the Millennium Falcon. Why Luke hadn't yet taken the opportunity to catch at least two of the forty winks he needed, he wasn't sure, but here he is. Sitting in the cockpit and listening to Han being ... well, Han.
Luke frowns. "What do you mean, notice me? We're in this tra-," he catches himself cussing out the vessel, "ship all together."
Han laughs. It is not his musical laugh he does to impress Leia, and not his bark he does when doing shady business with Lando when he thinks Luke isn't looking. Don't think Luke turns a blind eye on the smuggler when he's dealing with ... that sort of people. No, this laugh is almost mocking.
"Man, you're innocent," Han smirks, smacking him on the shoulder. "I mean, like ... you know. ______ and Luke, swimming in a sea -,"
He rolls his eyes at the schoolyard rhyme that every galaxy had a variation of. It was immature of the immature pilot, but what could Luke do? He cannot change Han to grow up a little. "Why would I want her to notice me? I'm pretty sure we're good friends," Luke insists, and quietly, he adds, "and that's all I can see us being."
Chewbacca whines. The hairy Wookie gives him a sad side eye, and moans quietly.
"Yeah, I know, buddy." Han agrees. "Luke, it's official. We men are getting you and _______ together."
He goes to protest, but takes a deep breath. "Whatever you want, Han. But I don't think this will go down well with ______. She doesn't much like being bossed around, least of all tricked. You remember how she was on Hoth when Leia and you duped her into evacuating from the base early."
Chewbacca groans.
"Right you are, Chewie," Han sighs. "Luke, I wish you'd hurry up and learn Wookie, because he gives the best advice." The pilot took his headset off - it had been smooth flying for the night so far, what bad news could come soon? - and turned to Luke. "Chewbacca here just said, 'A kitten who protests the owner to snuggle with the cute Jedi is a kitten in love'."
"He did not," Luke scoffs.
"You're right. But I'm right too. ______'s bonkers for you. Just ask - Chewie, we're being followed! How long has these Empire bastards been following us? Luke, wake up the girls, we need them on guns - how the hell is Naboo the closest planet?"
Luke runs off to the bunks. The ship is unsteady under his feet as Han dodges the fire from the two ships that have been in hot pursuit, and for a moment, Luke sympathises with Artoo and Threepio for all the times they've ended up inactive for falling wrong.
"We're up, we're up!" Leia grumbles, barging from the bunk past Luke. "Don't tell me twice to man a gun, I can do that in my sleep." Her hair is out of its customary braids, and smacks Luke as she runs off. "Come on, _______! Time for diplomacy!" She calls from down the hall.
Luke peeks his head into the bunks.
_______ is pulling her jacket over her head, and now in an odd position. This is not the first time his friend has been stuck - his mind flashes back to plenty of other times on the ship where her head needed pulling out from her clothing.
"Luke, is that you?" she calls out. She squirms, arms not budging much from her position. "Can I have some help?"
If he were anyone else, he would have stood quietly, and watched as you writhe like a child. It gave Luke a feeling, somewhere in his chest, seeing you so vulnerable and human, not the warrior the war has forced you to become. But Luke is not anyone else, he is himself, and the unstable flooring of the ship have him thrown toward you, and miraculously, have your head through the correct exit of your clothing with time to spare.
"Thank you," ______ whispers. She wriggles from under Luke's accidental hold, and runs off to assist Leia in their version of diplomacy at the guns.
Four hours later, Han has landed on an air strip in an unsettled area of Naboo, away from the Metropolis and their Queen. Thankfully, there's a spring, and land - where Chewbacca promptly worships, and according to Han, doesn't want to leave until a few days steady on his feet.
Luke agrees with the Wookie on that. Now with the droids bumping and buzzing around, there's more chatter around, and they're in on the plot to get Luke and ______ together. He isn't too pleased; Luke used to like Threepio before he started sprouting statistics about fertility and dating rituals.
"Luke? Can I grab you for a minute?" Leia waves him over from the other side of camp.
He'd admit it, he liked her, but not ... not like the way he liked ______. Maybe he was in love with ______. Leia was the kind of girl who knew what she was going to do, and knew exactly how she would do it. She was an action girl, in the middle of an war, and that was her element. After all this was over, and Luke was a Jedi like his father, he just wanted to sit down, alone, maybe read a book. Smell the green roses. Learn an alien language he probably would never use.
"Luke, I have to ask you something," Leia grabs his arm, and marches him away from the fire. ______ and Chewie are discussing types of ships he's flown. "I heard you like my friend, a lot more than friendship," she smirks.
Luke sighs. "Is everyone in on it now?" He probes the princess for an answer.
She laughs. "Except _______, of course. So, how are you going to ask her to go out with you?"
Luke frowns, and turns back to watch ______ from the distance away from the camp. She looks so nice by the firelight, her eyes crinkled at the edges from her wide smile. She's such a kind girl, a nice girl, a wonderful girl ...
"We're a long way from civilization, how am I going to take her anywhere?" Luke shoots back after a beat.
Leia nods. "I get it, technicalities. She likes hearing your stories, you know. Doesn't shut up about your planet like she's lived there her whole life. Why don't you tell her another one?" Leia suggests, placing her head on his shoulder.
He considers this.
"Okay ..." he nods. "But don't pester me if she doesn't want to!"
Leia rolls her eyes, punching Luke's shoulder. "Luke. There's a slim chance that will happen."
Too quick, he marches back to the campfire, and clears his throat. "_______?"
She turns her head, and her kind smile widens. "Luke! Is something wrong?" you wonder.
He shakes his head, and pockets his hands. Looking at Chewbacca, the Wookie gives him a big wink, and glances back to ______ with a grin. "No, nothing's wrong, I," he takes a deep breath, and adds, "I was wondering if after we eat, you'd, uh," he stumbles over his words, "Like to come with me? I've got another story to tell you."
"What's this?" Han interrupts before ______ can answer.
Chewbacca moans, and swats the smuggler.
"Sure, Luke," _______ beams. "I'll meet you in the bunks?"
He nods.
He feels too-full with the dinner they ate (what kind of rations is preserved canned string beans? Luke is sure to insist Han bulk-buys something much easier to go down than that next time), and waiting for ______ at the bunks, he takes a deep breath.
"Luke?"
______ is in the doorway. The exit light behind her head makes her appear to have a halo, to be a divine space deity, a Jedi goddess. He's seen you with his sabre, there's no way you have no force sensitivity in your veins.
"______, I uh, I wanted to tell you a story," he reminds you.
She nods, and closing the door behind her, joins him on her bed. It's the middle bunk, above his, and below Leia's. But before Luke can start his tale, you interrupt him with something he has not expected, and leaves him quite breathless and more lightheaded than a rouge Bantha charging him head-on.
You have kissed him.
"Stars," Luke gapes.
You grin. "Let me tell you a story, Skywalker," you push him backwards, so his head hits your pillow. "Once, in a galaxy not too far away, I met you, the first Jedi since the purge. I had heard stories, from my fathers, and their words proved unworthy for what a warrior I met. They spoke of a religion of soldiers of peace, a legion of peacemakers who strove for a galaxy to be as kept as it had in all the years before."
Luke is mesmerised by your voice. He had no idea - none - that you liked him, like a mother to a father, a king to a queen.
"...But when I met Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Warrior, trained by Obi Wan Kenobi, and Master Yoda, I found myself tormented by feelings I had not known since my childhood friends I had left behind to quest. I fell in love with this Jedi, Luke Skywalker. I knew from the stories my elders told that love in Jedi culture was not to be acted on; to be a celibate celebrator of culture." You take a deep breath, "But I also knew, from their stories, that apart from the downfall of the powerful peacekeepers, they had not enough lenience in their policies to love."
"_______," Luke whispers.
"I am willing to grow old and love you in entirety, Luke Skywalker," you murmur. "Are you?"
He smiles, and grasping your sleeve, brings you down to collapse atop his body.
"Always."