Headcanons: Autistic Force Sensitives, Trans Luke

Universe: Legends, but with Rey

Trigger Warnings: Abuse mentions

Pairings: Luke/Mara, Han/Leia

"Mara!"

Mara pushed herself back from her computer, slumping back over the back of her chair for a moment, before giving a great stretch, and standing up.

Luke had exactly two forms of greeting, one of which was shouting like the galaxy was coming to an end, and the other being absolute silence until he had found her. Their relation to the urgency of whatever situation he was in was tangential, at best. And, given she didn't sense any screaming hordes, and had lost track of time as she worked, she wasn't terribly bothered to rush.

"Mara!" he shouted again, and at that, she was more alert. His shouting habit was just something he'd become used to on the farm, easier than finding his family to let them know he was home. He didn't usually shout twice.

And, accompanying the second shout, there was a slight echo of pain.

She headed for the door, and found herself running by the time she reached the hallway. A sense of urgency was growing now, although it didn't seem to be from her husband, and when she reached the door of their apartment, she saw why.

Luke was holding a child.

And she didn't look particularly happy about it.

She was kicking and pushing at him, and unless Mara was much mistaken, she had to be the one who'd blackened one of his eyes.

Luke seemed wholly unconcerned about this. In fact, he immediately passed the bundle of angry child over to Mara, and began taking off his boots as he explained angrily. "Her parents were trying to sell her!"

Mara captured both the girl's hands, and locked her firmly in her grasp, folded over her chest so she couldn't initiate another attack.

"Anyway, I gave them the money they wanted and told them I expected to see them in counselling," Luke said, kicking aside his second boot, and barely missing the boot tray as he looked up, beaming, only to frown when he saw Mara restraining the girl. "Stop that, you're scaring her."

He held out his arms, and Mara allowed him to take the girl back, against her better judgement.

Right out of the gates, he wasn't even trying to hold her fists, and she was back to wailing on him.

"You've been beaten up by a five-year-old," Mara said, exasperated. She loved Luke, but his reasoning could be completely opaque, and as the girl finally closed her teeth on his left arm, Luke finally yelped in distress, and the girl stopped fighting for a moment, her arms and legs hanging limp as she stared at him in surprise.

"She's scared!" Luke answered, recovering quickly.

"Yup," Mara rolled her eyes, "She is terrified of you."

Finally, Luke dropped the act of hot defensiveness, adjusting his grip on the limp girl as she showed no interest in straightening, and tucking her back against his chest. "Her parents just tried to sell her. Sort of succeeded, really. I don't mind if she wants to beat on me a bit."

In his arms, the little girl finally gave a sniffle, and he looked down at her, cooing softly to her, like he did for Ben when he was upset.

"And, unless I've misread you entirely, we have a new child?"

Luke looked up from the little girl, a bit pink around the ears. "She needed somewhere to go. We got Ben his big-kid-bed the other day; she can sleep in the old crib tonight, and I'll get her her own tomorrow."

His eyes were pleading, and Mara knew he was rationalizing this as one child he could help, against the hundreds of thousands of new orphans he'd had to leave to other people's (better trained, and more qualified) hands. Instead of solving himself.

But it was one girl, she thought, watching as the child slowly curled her hands in Luke's tunic, sniffling. It was one scared little girl, who could have ended up with anyone. And Luke was far from the worst potential foster parent, already slowly stroking her hair.

"What's her name?" Mara asked. She almost chose to sound sarcastic, but the girl probably didn't need that.

Luke looked down at the girl, gently tipping her head up to face him, "Do you want to tell her?"

The girl gave a tiny shake of her head, before changing her mind, and looking nervously up at Mara.

"Rey."

"I'm Mara," she answered, offering her hand.

Slowly, the little girl reached out, not so much to shake her hand as to just touch fingertips, before withdrawing again into Luke's safe arms. "I know. He said."

Mara nearly chuckled at that mental image. Wherever Luke had been when he'd encountered Rey, he must have immediately lifted her up for easier access to punch his face, and talked to her the entire time, as though nothing was happening.

It hadn't taken a long time of loving Luke to know that loving someone did not mean understanding them.

"Where's Ben?" Luke asked, looking around their living room, as if expecting their son to emerge from behind a couch.

"He's out with Leia," Mara said, finally turning back to the room at large, trying to think of a way to welcome Rey to her new home, and coming up blank.

Luke brushed past her, taking the blanket from the back of their couch, and wrapping Rey in it. The little girl pulled it up over her head, leaning into him despite that she couldn't see him now.

"Where are Rey's things?" she asked. If she was going to be a mother for Rey, she'd probably better get started as soon as possible. She'd probably got off to a bad start restraining her, she reflected.

"Uhh…" Luke paused, his gaze slowly rolling up to the ceiling for a moment, before falling back to his bundle of child, "This is it."

Mara sighed, watching as Luke dropped into the sofa, cradling the little bundle, before coming over and settling next to him, slipping her arm around him, and cautiously touching the little girl's back.

"I can take her to get some things, if you want to take care of your eye."

Rey gave a great sniffle, her shoulders heaving under the blankets as she plastered herself closer to Luke.

He gave her a gentle smile, tucking her closer to his chest, and caressing her shoulder protectively. "I'll come too."