Beyond - Legends Father & Son (collection of Luke and Ben Skywalker Vignettes!) Kick a Ginger - August 8th

Title: Back Home
Author: Briannakin
Timeframe: 46 ABY-ish - sometime post all the EU books
Characters: Luke and Ben Skywalker
Categorization: Legends Cannon
Notes: I should be studying, but this bit and stuck. Thankfully it was a really short vignette/flashfic (shorter than I would have liked, but finals call).


Dragging his feet, Ben Skywalker stumbled into his father’s apartment by fumbling with the controls, which were backlit since it was the middle of the night. Ben’s clothes were burned in spots, and simply soaking wet all over. His red hair was matted with dirt. He had broken Jedi protocol by not debriefing his mission with a master upon his landing. But he would get away with it this time.

He shook off his boots, splattering his father’s coatroom with a mixture of foreign mud and blood, and only made it half way across the living room before his father, wearing an old grey shirt and loose sleep pants, appeared at the end of the hall, touching on a light.

Ben winced at the brightness, but his father’s words were gentle. “Ben, you weren’t scheduled to land for a few more hours.”

“Made good hyperspace time,” the 19-year-old sniffed, looking down at the floor. Evidence of a mission gone horribly wrong began pooling at his bare feet, soaking into the light grey rug.

“Then you should have commed me. I would have met you at the hangers,” Luke said with a light sigh. “Come on, I’ll make you something to eat while you have a sanisteam.”

It was then that Ben broke down, physically crumbling to the ground in tears.

His father was soon at his side, rubbing his back. “It’s okay. I know what happened. There was nothing you could have done.”

Ben sobbed, “I tried to stop it… but….”

“Hush, hush,” Luke said. “I know. I know. There was nothing you did not try. Let me help you change and you can get into bed.”

Ben did not move.

“Okay.” Luke settled at his son’s side and held him. “You are home now.”

* * *

Luke held Ben’s head in his lap until the teen was fast asleep. Thankfully, Ben gave into exhaustion deeply. Carefully, with the aid of the Force, Luke picked Ben up. Luke eventually settled his son in his bed. Luke gently stripped him, putting him in a pair of warm pyjamas then placed a towel over his wet hair. Luke then got into the bed beside him and began drying Ben’s hair.

Luke saw so much of himself in his son. “So much of your mom, too,” he said, out loud. “She’d be proud to see the man you have become. But you’ll aways be that bright little kid to me. Never think you can’t come home and crawl in bed with me, because you’ll always be that kid to your father.”

 

Adore this. It must be so hard for Luke to watch Ben go off on these missions.

 

I love this! They had such a fraught relationship in Legends, and its nice to think there was this closeness as well.

 

I loved reading this, a great way to show a deep relationship with subtlety and in an economy of words. Brilliant!

 

Sometimes it is nice to know that you can 'come home' and your family will be there for you.

 

Oh, Bri. As always, you give us gorgeous family-centric poignancy! That was so very Ben, and absolutely, positively Luke.

 

I love Ben and Luke, father/son fics and this was a beautiful example!

It may be short, but you could really feel the love Luke has for his son, and the hurt that Ben feels from this mission.

But you’ll aways be that bright little kid to me. Never think you can’t come home and crawl in bed with me, because you’ll always be that kid to your father.”
I adore this line. I'll admit, I'm 31 years old and I still crawl in bed with my mom when I'm home. I don't think I'll ever outgrow it.

Fantastic job!

Now get back to studying!

 

Notes: Thanks everyone! As you can probably tell, another flash fic popped into my head when I was supposed to be studying. Since it was a shorter, drabble-ish length, I just posted it in this thread and created a Luke and Ben Vignette/Drabble thread.


Title: Hide
Timeframe: 27 ABY
Categorization: Technically this is an AU because I’m ignoring the Yuuzhan Vong war.


“Are you sure you are going to be okay with him for three days?”

Luke looked up at his wife. She was hovering over the bed, dressed in a combat suit. It was still dark, so he was unable to see her features, but her red hair was tied back tightly. He rolled to look at his son, swaddled in a yellow sleeper beside him in the bed. The 6-month old was fast asleep. “Mara, despite having us as parents, you know Ben is the calmest, most well behaved human baby.”

Mara let out a tisk sound. “Famous last words of Luke Skywalker.” She then kissed him on the lips before leaning over him and kissing Ben’s forehead.

* * *

“Now, Ben,” Luke said to the child propped on his hip. Luke was up and dressed in his standard brown and black Jedi robes. Likewise, Ben was also awake, but he was dressed in a smart green sweater with brown pants, with tiny socks on his small feet. His unruly red hair was sticking up every which way. The baby was looking up at his father with curious eyes, trying to stick his small fingers up Luke’s nose. “I fed you breakfast. Are you going to be a good boy and play while Daddy works?”

Ben merely tilted his head.

“Let’s try,” Luke said, placing Ben on his back on the playmat and turning on his favourite toy: repulsors gently made a bar of chunky toys dangle from thick strips of crinkly fabric in front of Ben’s face, causing the child to try to grasp at them. He caught one, a bumpy red ball, and tried to stick it in his mouth.

Luke let out a small chuckle. Satisfied that his son would entertain himself, at least for a few minutes, he sat down in his lounger with his data-pad and began to go through reports and requests.

* * *

A knock interrupted Luke’s work about an hour later. “Come in,” he said, not taking his eyes off his work. He knew it was Corran Horn.

“Hey Luke,” the other Jedi said, entering the apartment. “Tionne sent me up you to tell you that the artifact found on Antua isn’t of Sith origin. It looks like some ancient culture that was Force Sensitive, but not aligned with Jedi or Sith. She wants to send one of her historian apprentices to the planet to see if they can find more information.”

Luke finally looked up. “Alright, sounds good.”

“How are things going with Ben? I’m assuming he is down for a nap.”

“No.” Luke gave Corran an odd look out of the corner of his eye. “He’s right there on his mat.” He then looked down and gasped in horror as the mat was empty. “Oh, dear stars!” He sprung to his feet and began searching the general vicinity.

Corran began to chuckle. “Relax Luke. He probably just crawled off somewhere. Valin did that all the time.”

Luke looked at the other man with wide eyes. “Ben can’t crawl yet!” He then popped down to look under the sofa.

“Yeah,” Corran said, beginning to look around. “That’s what Valin had us thinking.”

“Ben?” the two men softly called as they looked around the apartment.

“Mara is going to kill me,” Luke murmured, as he grew pale.

“No,” Corran gently said. He was now standing outside the cleaning closet. The door was open and Corran was looking in with a smile. “I don’t think she will.”

Luke crossed the apartment in two strides and looked in on the scene. Ben was laying, on his stomach with his arms and legs tucked under him, on top of a pile of Mara’s dirty robes. The baby was fast asleep.

Luke sighed softly as he picked his son, along with one of Mara’s robes. “It’s probably futile to tell you to never do that again.”

Corran let out a soft laugh. “I’ll leave you two.”

As the other Jedi left, Luke settled down in his lounger with his son. He rocked the child, not bothering to worry about work. In this moment, he was only a father.

 

Another really lovely vignette. The EU spends so much time following our heroes on their adventures and we hardly ever see them as just parents. Babies will literally get up to anything, I love that Corran is almost amused at Like because of his experience as a father, its a nice little role reversal

 

AWWWW. Overload of cuteness! Like I mind! Yup, I'm putting this thread on watch.

 

Oh this is adorable! And very true to life - a friend of mine calls this phenomenon the 'baby fairies' - when you take your eyes off an immobile baby for a few minutes and then turn round to find they're the other way up or - somehow! - the other end of the room!!

 

Never take your eye off the baby! Once those little guys get mobile they can move quick!

Looks like Ben misses his mother.

 

Dawwww.....

When I read Luke saying "you know Ben is the calmest, most well behaved human baby.” I wanted to yell "Why would you say something like that??? He should know better!"
But then things didn't go the way I expected at all, but they went in such a lovely, sweet direction.

I'm hoping this collection will continue!

 

Adorable, Briannakin. Yes, babies will suddenly crawl away, even if ten minutes before they couldn't figure which order to move their arms and legs in, or that their bum has to leave the ground for this 'moving' thing to work. My own Ben, after going only a few strides at a time, took off across the room and down the hall trying to catch his daddy (my own Luke!).

 

Always watch the baby!! Love seeing Luke in father mode. Great job.

 

It's review catch-up night, so I'm *finally* posting a review here.

Back home

What gaarastar58 said: "a great way to show a deep relationship with subtlety and in an economy of words". There is something very tender and at the same time heartbreaking in this little story. Ben is really one of those Jedi kids who found himself facing too much, too early, and Luke knows it. I'm very curious to know if you have a specific idea of the mission he came back from, or if it was just a mission gone wrong.

Hide

Okay, this one was positively hilarious and adorable at the same time. Luke in oblivious daddy mode is just too good to miss, and “That’s what Valin had us thinking” had me laughing out loud. Plus, that Ben would go for his mother's dirty robes, almost like a pet trying to sniff his master's smell, was exceedingly cute.

I hope to see more of these soon!

 

that was so sweet

more?

 

gaarastar58

Thanks. This is why I love writing fanfic - to read and write them as just parents.

Nyota's Heart

Thanks so much.


Annia Piet

Thanks. And I had younger twin brothers. We were quite used to 'baby fairies'.

Lady_Misty

Yes, he does.

Katana_Sundancer

Thanks. The image of little Ben wiggling his bum is just too cute!


JediMaster_Jen

I love writing Luke in father mode.

Chyntuck

Thanks so much. I do have a idea of a specific mission, but it was rather dark for me to feel comfortable posting here, so I took it out.

Thanks. I was going for cute and fun with Hide.


Falcon

Thanks. Yup there will be more.

 

Title: Holo Critics
Timeframe: 48 ABY
Categorization: Legends (duh)
Genre: pure fun
Notes: Yeah, this came to me after watching TFA, so I will say this now:





SPOILERS FOR TFA! WE ARE PAST THE SPOILER TIMELIMIT FOR THE MOVIE SO IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT YET AND ARE AVOIDING SPOILERS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE INTERNET?!


“That sucked,” Ben Skywaker declared, pushing the caff-table, which he had been resting his feet on.

“I don’t know,” Luke Skywalker said, scratching the back of his head. He was lounging on the other end of the couch, his feet against Ben’s legs. “I kinda liked it.” He then thought for a moment and nodded. “I really liked it.”

Ben looked at his father with wide eyes. The two had just watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a holo that continued the story of Luke. The rights to the Star Wars saga had recently been bought by one of the biggest Holo companies in the galaxy: Yensid. The previous owners to the rights to produce holos of Luke, along with Leia and Han, had chosen to create movies based on the Old Republic, not touching events past the destruction of the second Death Star. However, Yensid had chosen to completely fabricate a story, ‘set’ 14 years in the past. Which may have been the right call, with the events of the Yuuzhan Vong War and the Second Galactic Civil War being too recent for anyone to make an entertaining holo from them.

“WHAT?” Ben railed. “They named the Jacen character Ben.”

Luke shook his head. “I don’t think this Kylo Ren/Ben character is based off of Jacen. The rebellion is a popular subject again. People are interested in me, your aunt and uncle, and your grandfather again,” he said with a shrug. “Kylo is a crazed fanatic who idealizes Vader. Your cousin turned for his own reasons.”

“Okay,” Ben groaned. “BUT WHY NAME HIM AFTER ME?”

Luke shrugged again. “As an acknowledge that you exist. It should make you proud that they wanted to name a character that they will clearly redeem by the end of the trilogy after you.”

“Fine,” Ben murmured. “What about Rey? She’s basically Jaina and they dropped some pretty heavy hints that she’s your kid.”

Luke grinned. “Well, I’ve always wanted a daughter.”

The younger man rolled his eyes. “That would mean you are the worst father ever.”

“At least they got something accurate,” the older man smirked, poking his son in the ribs with his toes.

Ben slapped his father’s feet and leaned back in thought. “Okay, so, beyond that, I guess it was okay. The whole plot was basically recycled though - a droid carrying vital information, gets deserted on a desert world after his master gets caught by the baddies? The droid finds a naive desert kid who escapes with the help of a morally questionable new friend and an old man who then gets killed later on by the main baddie? Oh, and Chewbacca is involved. Sounds an awful lot like how you guys got to and escaped the original Death Star.”

“It was nostalgic. It worked as a story.”

“You weren’t even in it.”

Luke looked at his son. “Hey, I was at the end. Plus the guy who plays me really looks good. Maybe I should grow a beard.” He trailed off the subject, rubbing his face. “Besides, that was my second favourite part.”

Ben bit. “What was your favourite? The part when you get called a myth?”

“No.” Luke sat up. “The part where General Hux basically proves all gingers are soul-less.” He then reached forward and messed up Ben’s red hair.

“Hey, what about mom?”

“Oh, your mother would be the first to admit that every freckle she owned was a soul that she stole,” Luke said with a laugh, remembering a conversation he once had with Mara.

Ben huffed.

Luke pulled his chiming comm-link off of his belt and answered it, knowing it was Jaina. He knew his niece had just finished watching the holo with her parents. “Jaina, how is it at the Solo house?”

Jaina’s laugh came through the speaker. “Dad is pissed he got killed off, but Mom loved it. She cried, but says they made her character strong and awesome and real.”

"And you?” Ben yelled.

“I just want a BB unit!”

 

Ha! Love it!

There's something very comforting about sharing the experience of watching TFA with our favourite characters

I hope you'll provide us with similar legends character responses to future films

 

That was a PERFECT way to cross Legends with the new canon! Brilliant!

Everyone wants a BB-unit!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Aw, Bri! Those were some good and true reactions. Totally hit the high and low points with superb accuracy.

 

This was very cute.

 

This was a great way to merge the Canon and Legends timelines. Well done!

 

Thanks! It was so much fun to write, I plan to do this with subsequent films #LegendsWillNeverDie!

Thanks!

Thanks. After the whole "Ben!" scene, I had to write this.

Thanks. Would it be offensive if I wrote a fic based around the "Soulless Ginger" meme? Because as the child of Daala, I've been tempted.

Thanks!