It was the middle of the night on Coruscant, but not even then did the planet sleep. Speeders zoomed past the immense balcony of the old Jedi Temple as they had in the past, and they would in the future. Strangely, to the young man watching, that endless activity was a soothing sight.

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight in his own right, watched the hustle and bustle of city life with a benign smile on his face. His gaze turned skywards and his smiled widened.

The stars. Always the stars. Different stars, with a different configuration, but always there. He never got tired of looking at them, of walking amongst them for real and in his mind. Always home with them.

His heart fluttered with joy and warmth. The joy and warmth of fulfilment. Not only of his destiny as a man and a Jedi, but of every single dream he'd ever had.

"Come, Father," he invited quietly the warmth that lived permanently in his heart, keeping him safe and focused.

He heard the muffled sounds of his father's footsteps approaching.

"Am I disturbing your contemplation?" Anakin whispered when he joined his son's side.

"Quite the contrary, your presence makes it all better," the young man replied in sweet contentment. "I'm grateful for sharing this moment with you." There was a a short pause and Luke half-turned to his father, setting his eyes on him. "I'm grateful for every moment with you."

Anakin smiled lovingly at his child, and Father and Son stared at one another for the millionth time, never getting enough.

An eternity later, their eyes turned to the stars above. A heartfelt sigh escaped Luke's lips.

"As a child, I used to spend untold hours looking at the sky at night on Tatooine. In the summer I often slept outside under a blanket, and fell asleep watching the stars." His eyes swept the skyline in fond remembrance. "And that... need never went away. Not even when I joined the Alliance. I just couldn't resist the pull of the stars. I felt there was something... for me up there... out there."

Anakin nodded in complete understanding.

"It was the same for me."

Luke's head turned sharply to look at his father.

"As a child on Tatooine, as a child and teenager here on Coruscant, and on every single planet I visited. And especially after..." a very telling silence said the words for him, "...I would spend hours upon hours looking out the Executor's windows, waiting to see... to find some meaning, a reason for..." a shiver ran through his body. "It felt as if the stars held my answer, the answer."

"Yes," Luke nodded pensively. "The answer." A soft smile illuminated his features from within. "And I'm looking at it right now."

Anakin smiled with sad self-consciousness before braving his son's blue eyes and encountering the same adoring, devoted look that was always present in those beautiful features when they looked on him.

"Watching the stars is a different experience for me now," he confessed.

"How?" Luke asked.

"I'm... grounded. Anchored to the only place I never want to leave," his eyes caressed the form of his son, completing the thought through them.

Luke's eyes had to close momentarily at that. Soft laughter echoed through the walls.

"As a kid and teenager I had my small gang of friends. I'd go out with them and consider myself a fairly independent person, despite feeling trapped on that planet. And I felt the same after joining the Alliance. I always had my own space that no one could trespass, in here," he pointed at his temple. "That... restlessness, that loneliness was mine and only mine, and I cherished it like my greatest treasure. But at the same time, I longed to find something that gave a purpose to that emptiness."

With an unexpected bittersweet sigh, he turned to the city outside.

"Is it possible that we were looking for each other, before knowing the other was alive?" he asked rhetorically. He knew the answer.

Anakin answered by inching closer to his child, until their arms brushed against one another.

"As independent as I was as a teenager and afterwards, I find myself desperately attached to you, Father," the words left Luke's lips before they coalesced in his mind. "It's as if I had found the missing piece of myself, vital to my fulfilment as a Jedi and as a person." He took a deep breath. "Is it healthy, Father? To need someone so much?"

A sharp pain in his breast stopped Anakin from responding. He had to bite his lower lip to manage a semblance of composure.

"In spite of what the laws of nature dictate, a parent will always need their child. Some bonds are too strong to be broken, even after the children grow up."

"That's not really what I meant," Luke said.

"I know," Anakin nodded.

The two Jedi remained silent for a long time, taking in the ambience around them and the other's nearness. Absorbing it into their beings.

"It all comes down to how beneficial that attachment is, to you," Anakin replied at last. "Does it make you weaker or stronger? Does it impede your growth as a Jedi and as an individual? Do you want it or you just... need it, despite yourself?"

An avalanche of memories flooded the older Jedi's mind.

"One of the first lessons we were taught, was to avoid any kind of attachment, because should that attachment be threatened, we'd become irrational in our fear to protect it, to prevent it from being taken away from us. Ultimately, it could lead to the Dark Side." An excruciatingly self-deprecating smile crossed Anakin's features. "In my case, it proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Luke's love inundated his father's guilt-filled spirit, transforming the guilt into incandescent, shimmering Light.

"And yet, that attachment brought me back from the Darkness when it threatened your life." Shudderingly, Anakin's soul wrapped itself around his son, bringing him as close as they could be. Closer even.

Moments of blissful communion passed, and in that sublime realm, Anakin found the answer he was looking for.

"We're both intelligent enough to admit that people are different. What's good for one person might not be so good for another. I needed to feel attached to something. I needed to love and be loved to be whole, and stay sane. And when that love was gone I lost myself, and fell prey to the demons that lurked in my soul," he took a shaky breath and sought refuge in the nurturing warmth of his son's heart. "You taught me that it is possible to use that attachment for illumination and insight, as a path to reach true wisdom." He smiled with the peace with which that spontaneous revelation had infused his soul. "My attachment to you gives me strength, makes me feel a part of something bigger and better than I could ever be on my own. Without it, I cannot exist. I don't want to."

Luke's eyes remained fixed on the top of the buildings directly in front of them, gleaming with unshed tears.

"And I thought I couldn't love you more," he shook his head in humbled wonderment. "You just gave voice to who I am and where I belong." He turned to his father resolutely. "My attachment to you isn't just a need, Father. It defines me; it's what I am. It guided me to you and it brings me more joy than I can..." he choked on his words, helpless to convey all the love that sang in his veins. Anakin put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it fervently. Luke brought up his own hand over his father's and returned the pressure just as fervently. "I'm so happy that it frightens me. I couldn't bear..."

"I know, little one; I know," Anakin's own watery eyes spoke volumes. "That's the duality of existence, and it's true for all of us. Wise or fool, short or tall, big or small. Everyone's greatest asset can cause their downfall. But we learned our lessons. We're older and wiser." He grimaced slightly. "At least, I am older."

Luke laughed against his will at that, and squeezed his father's hand tighter.

"Don't let this feeling of vertigo at your happiness cloud the joy you feel. Life's too short to waste it expecting the worst," he placed his other hand on Luke's other shoulder. "We are together, I will always be with you. In life and in death. Nothing could ever take me away from you, my son. Nothing."

Luke's eyes fell closed again, and he allowed his father's impassioned promise to seep into his being and wash his fears away. The Force vibrated strong and bright around and inside him, like an invigorating heartbeat.

"Yes," he sighed, grasping Anakin's forearm with his free hand. "And you will always have me. You will never be alone, Father," his own pledge was just as unshakeable and unswerving. "We are finally whole. And complete."

Anakin had to swallow the lump in his throat. For the first time, he could believe that love had finally entered his life to stay, not as a temporary oasis of peace and shelter to be torn away from him mercilessly time after time. The smile that graced his lips was one of perfect contentment and serenity, like nothing he'd ever known before. He took a deep, cleansing breath and released it quietly.

"Yes," he echoed his child's grateful sigh. "Love is always the answer."

Luke nodded, raising his eyes to the sky.

"Love is the way," he murmured, turning to the veranda. He let go of his father's hand and wrapped his right arm around his torso.

Anakin turned his gaze to the sky too, wrapping his arm around his son's shoulder and holding him close.

"The only way," he set the seal on their Truth, lowering his head and kissing the top of the blond head leaning on him.

A spectacular shooting star streaked across the night sky, leaving behind a trail of white-hot colours; a dazzling mirror image of the other-worldly beauty that observed it wonderingly from below.

THE END.