Beyond - Legends I'll Come With You

Just what I wanted: to dissolve into a mess of tears so early in the morning!

That was wonderful. Honest and painful and sweet.

 

And slowly is the key word here, lol. Mara was on board with that idea of dating and hanging out together casually, here and there, but when Luke is all, "BUT FAMILY DINNER PWEEEEEZE" she was like:



Which prompted her to think that, even though she does like Luke, she was starting to fear that he was going to corner and smother her with his own and his family's expectations on "what Luke Skywalker's wife should be like." He's a super-affectionate and sociable guy and she figures he's going to want an army of kids, and facing all of that just triggers her "DO NOT WANT" panic mode. While they get along well in regards to wit and grit, she's seriously wondering what the heck he's thinking in seeing her as wife material.

Luke, of course, is already convinced, but he has to help her understand that he's well aware of all these issues and is willing to compromise if he really has to. For him, it's worth putting aside some of his hopes and dreams, at least for a while, if it means that she'll be more comfortable. And his remark about his niece and nephews is meant to express that while he does indeed love the idea of children, deep down he's equally terrified of being a father for entirely different reasons. Although he's still a strong influence in their lives, at the end of the day Han and Leia are their parents, not him. Showering a kid with love won't guarantee he or she will grow up with what they need to survive and succeed in life, and with all his complicated daddy issues Luke knows how difficult and scary it may be for him to raise a child. Besides all that, there's the whole "we're constantly in danger factor," which just makes things worse. The Solo kids were kidnapped and used against their parents so much it was ridonkulous.

At this point Luke is just as torn up about starting a family as Mara, but he doesn't want to get into that subject right now because it's needlessly messy. They need to get over the biggest hurdle of just getting closer to one another first.

I knew that was gonna do that. *cackle* Luke is still an eternal sap, but he's smoother than his old man.

TBH, this part of the discussion was actually kind of inspired by seeing other AU fics in which the L/M relationship is either disapproved of by the Solos (which really makes no sense to me at all, but I guess it's meant to work in the context of the AU) or by the public or government, or the characters are still entrenched on opposing sides of the Galactic Civil War but are carrying on with a secret relationship, etc. There's something transcendent about this OTP, that literally no matter what happened to them, they were meant to be together and they'd be like, "Heck with it, TWUE WUV, Y'ALL."

 

The other thing I forgot to mention is that Luke wasn't only considering what Mara may or may not want out of him before popping the question - it was a Really Big Deal for him to ask because he's finally done it, period. He's lurved a lot of gals, but Mara is The One he finally worked up the cajones to actually ask to marry him. Now that it's out there, there's no taking it back; as far as he's concerned, this is the point of no return. He wants to be as careful as possible because he's hoping that in a best case scenario Mara will eventually say yes again, and in a worst case scenario she'll ultimately turn him down but still be willing to stay BFFs, rather than vanish out of his life altogether. Kind of like the Diet Coke version of Stuff. His greatest fear is losing her completely. It'll be the epitaph of his love life.

Although Mara is reeling here and feels the need to get control of this situation again, Luke is equally treading water.

 

Wonderful update -- looking forward to their next conversation.

 

[Story removed.]

 

Oh, ThreadSketch, this was so gorgeous!!!!!

An intrepid yearning darkened his eyes, and he tucked a stray lock behind her ear. “There is something,” he murmured, drawing near, and Mara went still as his lips met hers. Slowly they caressed her mouth with tenuous reverence, and as she let herself drink in the warm musk of his breath she also allowed her barriers to relax ever so slightly, and felt the shining weight of his bittersweet joy pressing against them, scarcely restrained. The taste of his soul was almost more tangible than that of him, and for a moment all the world save for him dimmed and wavered.

Made me all squishy gooey inside.

Mara is definitely, definitely warming up to him LOL

 

I made it just for you.

Lolz, that was the friggin' hardest thing I've had to write in this entire spiel. Of all the things that aren't my forté, that's the worst. Glad it still worked for you.

 

Don't mind me, I'll just be over here...

Spoiler

 

Don't make me pull out that Liz Lemon consolation gif...

The wibble is only going to get worse in the next chapter or two, so I guess I better go order the Costco-sized pallet of Kleenex, LOL.

 

Ooh, two chapters! And they were incredible -- funny, well-characterized, and insightful. Liked the conversation about Mara's anxiety with the Solo's and all the expectations that they (to her) represent for her relationship with Luke. Also, still bringing the hilarity with their comments about the Errant Venture text and the resulting hues from the Prism Color Matching System. And those two can kiss pretty well for such stealthy people, I think.

 

The GFFA's gotta have its own version of Texts From Last Night.

Luke's not exactly that much of a prude; it's less being a conservative, backrocket monk and more that the Horizontal Space Pirate Boogie is something that holds a lot of emotional significance for him, at least now that he's older and more mature. It's not something he considers lightly, nor an itch he needs scratched often outside of a true relationship. Once he was out of his Rogue Leader years, he came to associate it far more with actual love, so it's an extremely meaningful act for him. He really is a romantic sap. While he can joke about it up to a certain point, it makes him a tad uncomfortable in this situation because he does take it quite seriously, especially when it involves the one he believes is now his soulmate. Whereas for Mara, it's just another biological need and no big deal.

Spoiler

This is why, in my head!canon, he wound up feeling pretty squicky about what happened between him and Akanah, on multiple levels. But I digress.

He wanted to use their bond to the fullest when he kissed her, but held back because he figured it might freak her out. But he's not too shabby aside from the Force.

 

I loved the kiss -- can't wait for more!!!! And to see what Luke gave her.

 

oh, devious farmboy!He gave her a gift and the kiss..a taste of what she can have.

 

I...think this is the most beautiful kiss scene I have ever read.


Edit: In my shipper haze I forgot to mention how much I appreciated Luke apologising about the Lando thing. His disapproval/jealousy in VoTF always bugged me, because (a) it couldn't be less of his business if they had been lovers and (b) Lando is one of Luke's close friends, so he knows that underneath that dandy facade he's not a hit-em-and-quit-em kind of guy - at least not at that time of his life. Luke had a front row seat, iirc, to some of Lando's wooing of Mara that seemed to go on for several years, and had to know that at some stage Lando had semi-genuine feelings for her. So for Luke to wring his hands about Mara's virtue when it came to Lando always smacked of OOC-ness and a bit of a clumsy way to point out to everyone that no, Mara certainly hadn't shtupped Lando at some indeterminate point in the past as if it would make the slightest difference if she had.

But this probably no place for me to vent about my pet peeves So again, great chapter!

 

A sneak preview. His gift really has no monetary value, but it has a metric ton of sentimental value, of course.

D'awwww. Well, shucks.

Oh, no, please vent away - I certainly do! Yeah, I felt that scene was weird and awkward too, which is why I had Mara reply here that she never stuck her nose into Luke's business with his girlfriends. Some of that would have been genuine indifference, but seriously, they're all adults; whatever each of them chose to do before coming into each others' lives is their own private stuff. (And to be fair, Mara's comment was mean too - she should have known better than to accuse Luke of carelessly dumping the women he loved.)

 

Except she totally did!

 

Shhhhhh. Handwaving in progress.

 

[quote="ThreadSketch] Oh, no, please vent away - I certainly do! Yeah, I felt that scene was weird and awkward too, which is why I had Mara reply here that she never stuck her nose into Luke's business with his girlfriends. Some of that would have been genuine indifference, but seriously, they're all adults; whatever each of them chose to do before coming into each others' lives is their own private stuff. (And to be fair, Mara's comment was mean too - she should have known better than to accuse Luke of carelessly dumping the women he loved.)[/quote]

That's true, I am just very protective of the Luke and Lando friendship, so his attitude was a real WTF for me. Of course, I don't think Mara talking smack about him and Callista was OOC at all p), so that bothered me less - although yes, she was quite rude about it.

Oh, OTP, you are so messed up

 

Totally agreeing on the Callista thing. That wasn't ever rude

 

Mara's gotta be Mara, I guess.

 

I'll skip the emotion and the sweetness and the mushiness and cut to the chase: What's the bloody gift???? I demand the next chapter now!! (Err... But other than telling us about the gift, we still want the emotion and the sweetness and the mushiness and everything else, yes?)

Oh, and I was surprised to see two whole chapters without a mention of food, but then you somehow decided to compensate apparently. My mistake

 

He got a kiss! We are getting closer and closer to bootknocking. Sorry that I haven't reviewed for a couple posts. I usually read these stories on my tablet, but my touch screen has been actiing up and I have a hard time writing on it. I have to wait until I get to a real computer to write a review.

Nice updates!

 

*hands you some of Mom's tamales and backs away carefully*

LOL, no, I can't have food in every chapter, unfortunately. But it'll pop up again eventually.

You might regret finding out what that gift is unless you have enough of these...

That's okay, lol, this fic isn't going to grow legs and run away; it'll be here whenever you're able to catch up.

 

See...now...this just makes the suspense even worse!! But thanks for the warning! *sniffle*