In which Luke prepares to leave on a mission and Jalani doesn't want him to go. Occurs in between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes back and after Speeder Slip.
"Do you really have to go?" I ask again for at least the fifth time that day. Luke's blue eyes meet my own. He lets out a slow frustrated breath.
"I'll be back before you know it, Lani. Han's going too. I'll be fine," he says as he finishes screwing a panel on his X-wing back into place. I watch him and lean against the side of the small fighter. I'm so bored and he hasn't even left yet. Leia and I hardly know each other even though I was there helping her escape from the Death Star about a year ago. Let's just say we have one thing common...Luke and he also drives us apart. Luke looks up at me and tosses the tool he was using into the red toolbox.
"I don't know what to do. There's no one here to talk to," I say quietly. C-3P0 walks up to the two of us and Luke smirks at him as he approaches.
"He'll keep you company," he says with a slight laugh before turning to his other droid R2D2, who accompanies him on all of his flights, "Okay, R2, that should be fixed. You should be good to start it." A happy whistle resounds from the top of the fighter where R2 sits when they go flying.
3P0 makes his approach. I suppress the urge to groan. He's a really nice droid, he really is. He just...
NEVER SHUTS UP!!! EVER!!!
It drives me crazy. I don't understand how Luke deals with it. He also spends a lot more time with R2 than he does with 3P0 which explains why the two of them are so close. Maybe I could sneak 3P0 onto the Falcon with Han and Chewie. Han would LOVE that for sure.
"Hey, 3P0!" I call out as he starts to approach, "I think Han and Chewie needed help translating something on the Falcon."
"Oh my!! I don't recall Han telling me that but I will go and see," 3P0 responds with the dignified manner that he always does. He turns to R2 and Luke, "Safe travels, Master Luke and R2!" He then walks off towards the Falcon in the robot walk that I often find humorous.
"Han's not going to be happy with you," Luke mutters as he waits for the signal to get into his cockpit, "3P0 really doesn't mean to annoy either one of you."
"I know. I'll deal with him when he gets back," I say with a smirk on my face. I lean up against the X-wing again to talk to Luke some more. R2 starts to make happy whistling sounds from his place on top of the X-wing. Luke climbs into the cockpit to see what he's saying. He rolls his eyes before climbing back down. I chuckle as R2 makes some sort of offended noise in response to Luke climbing down.
"You can tell me how happy you are to be up there once we get going. I'm talking to Lani right now," he responds, "Don't get offended." R2 starts to beep and whistle at Luke again. I don't understand droids very well but I've hung around R2 and Luke long enough to know when R2 is talking about either Luke or I. I understand our names in his beeps and that's about it. Sure enough, I catch my name multiple times and apparently Luke does too because he shoots R2 another look.
"R2, quit talking about me. Besides, you'll miss me as much as Luke does once you're on the mission," I call out to the little droid. He makes some sort of noise that once again indicates that he's appalled that I suggested such an idea. Luke laughs at the exchange.
"It's true. He just won't admit it," Luke says, "The last time we left he was asking if you were coming with us."
"Why would he ask that? He knows I'm not a pilot," I say with a shake of my head.
"I don't know. He's very protective of us though," Luke says with a chuckle.
"A little too protective," I say, nudging Luke in the shoulder. As I walk by and nudge Luke, I reach down and unclip his lightsaber from his belt. He carries it and his blaster with him every where he goes now. I haven't seen him train with it in awhile. Maybe he does when I'm not around, even though most of the time I'm with him so there's isn't really a waking hour where we're not together. Luke looks around making sure that he has everything. He looks down his bright orange flight suit.
"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