Vader gently shunted his young son a few feet over. The boy looked up from his toys with an expression of confusion. Then he realized that he'd been sitting in the easiest path from Vader's desk to the data cards arranged on the nearby shelf. He returned to playing, pushing little toy airspeeders around.
Vader smiled at him and retrieved the card he needed before returning to his desk. He put it into his datapad, and found himself looking over the device at his child.
It had been a lengthy process retrieving the boy from his master. But it had certainly been worth it. Luke was a happy, innocent link to Vader's sanity. He was desperately shy around anyone but his father. He was quiet and helpful. Vader had been warned that children could be a burden by all the parenting books he had frantically obtained, but Luke was anything other than that.
Vader made himself return to his datapad as his son stood up and came towards him.
"Daddy," Luke said, offering Vader his speeder.
Vader took it, "Yes, Luke?"
"Wanna play with me?" Luke asked.
Vader looked back at the datapad and then put it down. He got down on his hands and knees, crawling with his son back to where the boy had left the rest of his toys. Luke gave him one of the toys and started instructing Vader on what exactly he was supposed to do with it.
Vader couldn't quite understand the point or meaning of the game. It mostly seemed to consist of very near misses. Finally, Luke purposely crashed the two he was holding together, making a loud noise clearly meant to indicate the resultant explosion.
Then he put the two speeders down, looking at his father in confusion. "Why doesn't that happen?"
"Well, it does happen."
"Why not always?"
"Because there are laws to try to prevent it. Here, don't catch the speeders when I lift them, okay?"
Luke nodded, watching the scattered toys. Vader started lifting them one after another, carefully setting up a little traffic system.
"Oh. Daddy, how do they know where they're s'possed to go?"
"There are a lot of things you have to learn before you can fly a speeder. Knowing where to take your speeder is lesson number one."
Luke nodded his understanding. Then he stuck one hand into the system. "What happens if this happens?"
Vader made the ships swerve wildly to avoid his son's hand. Luke giggled, and the game quickly became one of Vader trying to evade Luke's assorted traffic disturbances.
"I wanna try!" Luke exclaimed, reaching for one of the ships. Vader allowed it to fall out of his network into his son's hand. Luke promptly threw the ship back into the system. Vader caught the ship as it neared the bottom.
"Why didn't it fly?" Luke asked, frustrated. "You made it fly. I saw you."
Vader put the ship back into the network. "I'm using the Force. Would you like to learn how?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, pick yourself another ship."
Luke's hand darted back into the matrix, pulling out a new ship. This time, he put it gently in front of himself and commanded, "Okay, fly." To Vader's surprise, the ship gave a little twitch, as if it was trying.
"It moved!"
"Yeah, it did," Vader answered. "Well, that's not normally how you'd use the Force, but if it works, it's a place to start."
Luke returned to staring intensely at his ship and trying to command it. After a few minutes of nothing more than the first twitch, he got frustrated and turned back to his father.
"Show me how to do it the way you are."
Vader allowed all the ships but one to land in neat lines before catching the last one in his hand.
"Alright, leave your ship on the floor, like you've done."
Luke nodded.
Vader placed his own ship a couple of feet away from himself, next to Luke's ship. "Now, raise your hand and imagine it moving."
Luke reached out with both hands, apparently believing that it would work twice as well. The ship lifted about a centimeter before falling back to the ground. Luke turned to his father with huge excited eyes, "I did it! Did you see, Daddy? I did it!"
Vader smiled back at his son, "I saw. Good job!"
Luke's grin got a little wider. "Gonna try again!" he exclaimed, reaching his arms out again and making the ship lift again.
"Luke, you really only need one hand." Vader told his son gently.
Luke lowered his left arm and the ship took an alarming dip at one end. Then it steadied itself.
"Good job! Now why don't you try making it go forward?" Vader suggested.
"'Kay!"
The ship gave a great leap forward, as if its engine had stalled for a moment and then restarted while the owner kept their foot on the gas.
"I did it!" Luke shouted happily, making his ship navigate the table and chair legs.
"That's very good, Luke! Why don't you make it go backward now?"
Luke's ship came to a jerky halt and started to move backwards.
"Wow!" Vader told his son.
Luke grinned and brought the ship back to himself. "Wanna try with more!"
He then proceeded to lay out four ships across the ground, attempt to stare at all of them intensely, and go cross-eyed. Vader smiled at him, not wanting to laugh and hurt his feelings.
"Maybe you should try two before you try four."
"Yeah," Luke nodded, panting slightly at the sheer energy he had been trying to force into the toy speeders.
Vader gently swept two of the four speeders out of his son's way, and the boy began again. Vader found his son's enthusiasm to be catching when the boy managed to lift both and let out a short cheer. By the time Luke had both speeders maneuvering at what he seemed to have decided was the safe limit, Vader found himself cheering the boy on shamelessly.
At last, Luke put his two speeders down. "I'm hungry."
"I'm getting there too," Vader nodded. "Would you like to find some food?"
"Yeah."
Vader stood up, then bent over his son, scooping the boy up in his arms. "And, up we come!"
Luke giggled and wrapped his arms tightly around his father's neck. For a moment, Vader felt a terrible loneliness. Padme would have been so proud of Luke. He pushed the loneliness aside. After all that time Luke had waited patiently for him, he deserved Vader's full attention.
Vader sat his son at the table and began to prepare food for them.
When the bell rang, Luke leapt down from the table, exclaiming happily, "I'll get it!"
Vader glanced up to smile fondly at his retreating son.
He heard the door click open and heard Luke start to greet their visitor. It was as if Vader was standing beside his son, watching his eyes travel up the intruder. He heard the boy's voice suddenly become very small.
"Where is your father, worthless boy?"
Vader recognised that snap. His master.
"This way, please, Sir." Luke said, his happy innocence of moments before lost to sheer obedience.
Vader felt himself tense, putting the egg he was holding down beside the stove and turning to where they would be re-entering the room.
His son entered first, small head bowed, looking small and afraid. Palpatine followed closely. When he saw Vader, he hit Luke in the small of the back with his cane, shoving him towards Vader. Vader knelt down and caught his son, looking into the tear-filled eyes before hugging the child close.
"You are a Sith, Lord Vader!" Palpatine snapped at him.
Vader simply hugged his son closer.
"That brat doesn't deserve your time!"
Vader continued to ignore him.
"He's good for nothing more than a slave! A worthless slave like his grandmother!"
Vader gave his son an extra tight squeeze before putting him gently on the ground and standing up, deadly calm.
"Luke, Honey, cover your eyes. Daddy's going to do something he doesn't want you to see." He instructed, reaching for his lightsaber.