Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars...because if I did, I'd have a cool, incredibly well-animated series that followed the original trilogy characters...and none of that Ewok and Droid stuff...
Author's Note: Thank you for all of the kind reviews. It's very much appreciated.
Chapter II: Lessons in Cooking
Luke came into the living room to find that the children weren't there.
"My turn!" Anakin's cry came from the kitchen.
He shook his head. Weren't they just playing with a game of some sort? What could they be doing in the kitchen?
The scene that met his eyes filled him with horror, and the worst kind of horror too, because children are capable of doing scary things.
Two burners on the stove-top were spouting blue flame, though no pots or pans were covering the fire. Nothing to be cooked was found anywhere near the stove-top, despite the fact that Jaina had pulled two pieces of bread from the bread drawer. After coating them with butter, she had set them on the counter top. She then pulled open some cabinet drawers, pushing aside various pots and pans, looking for exactly the right one.
Jacen was swinging from the cooler's door, hanging onto the handle and pumping his legs to propel the door on its hinge. Anakin, who was sitting on the floor and surrounded by bits of cereal-like food, was watching enviously. The boy noticed his uncle staring – gaping – at the disastrous atmosphere of the kitchen, and Anakin dropped the box that he was eating from and pointed a sticky hand at Jacen. "Tell him it's my turn!" he shouted. "He's swung twice now!"
"Well, it's my game anyway!" Jacen explained, pumping his legs furiously. The cooler teetered, and the door swung back and forth with a speed that was actually quite fast.
Jaina looked up, having found the perfect pan. "Jacen, stop! I need to get the cheese!"
"Try and get it!" He was still pumping. The door was still swinging back and forth rather dangerously, until it slammed shut with a fatal sense of finality.
Anakin jumped up. "There, Jacen! It's my turn!"
Jacen loosened his grip on the door's handle, jumping down. "Aw, have your turn, then," he said indifferently, as though the idea of swinging on the cooler's handle was not one that would have ever appealed to him anyway. Anakin made to grab the door handle. Jaina pushed him aside so that she could get the groat cheese and finish preparing her dinner.
It was then that Luke realized that the stove was still going.
He finally pulled himself from his shocked stupor and commanded, "This has to stop."
The children looked up to him in hurt astonishment, perhaps more injured by his tone than by his actual message.
"We weren't were doing anything bad, Uncle Luke," Luke heard Jaina say in a small and subdued voice as he reached over her and turned off the stove-top.
Anakin's eyes were shimmering with unshed tears when he looked up to his uncle. "We're not bad, are we, Uncle Luke?"
Luke held his gaze for only a moment before looking up to the ceiling with a sigh. How can I stay mad? He had no idea how very concerned they were to remain in his thoughts as "good" children. It even made him feel a little guilty, as silly as that sounded. Kneeling down beside Anakin, he put an arm around the boy's shoulders. "Of course not," he said in a tone that he hoped sounded more convincing than what he thought it did. "If you kids were hungry, you should have told me, though," Luke added, standing up.
"You can cook?" Jacen sounded dubious.
"Sure, I can cook," Luke looked down at his nephew, almost offended.
"Okay, so what can you make?" Jaina said innocently.
"Lots of things." Luke glanced around the kitchen hesitantly. Cooking? That wasn't hard, right? Noticing the buttered bread sitting on the counter, he said to Jaina, "You were going to make grilled-cheese sandwiches, right?"
She nodded vigorously.
"So, do you all like that?"
Luke didn't receive an answer other than, "Uncle Luke, look what I can do!"
The Jedi Master snapped his attention to Jacen, who was holding his hands in the air, a look of concentration tightening his young features. Luke followed Jacen's gaze up, up to where a slice of bread hung in the air.
Levitating above Anakin's head. Anakin had his neck craned upward, eyes closed and mouth wide open, waiting for the slice to fall into his waiting mouth.
Shaking his head, Luke reached up and snatched the bread from Jacen's weak Force-grasp. "Jacen," he began sternly, "the Force is not a play-thing." He set the bread in the pan that Jaina held out to him, her eyes wide with surprise. "And you shouldn't treat it as such."
Jacen sullenly looked away. Anakin wondered why the bread had not yet fallen.
Luke set about making three sandwiches, Jaina acting as his helpful assistant. She would get the bread out and butter it, while Luke would place it and the groat cheese in the pan. He flipped the sandwiches now and then, hoping that they wouldn't burn.
Anakin opened his eyes and found that the bread was no longer floating above his mouth. "Where'd it go?" he asked no one in particular.
Jacen pointed to Luke as he pulled himself onto a bar-stool, which sat on one side of the expansive, kitchen counter. Anakin immediately followed suit, jumping onto the bar-stool next to his brother. After Jaina's kitchen duties were done, she moved to sit with her brothers.
Then they all proceeded to watch Luke. Besides being almost uncomfortable, it was kind of flattering. Luke knew that the children considered him a role model, and he realized how daunting of a role that was to play. And it was a role that he played often; being the first of the new generation of Jedi, his every move was watched and mimicked, studied and practiced, by those at his Academy. One day, those Jedi trainees would include his nephews and niece. By setting what he hoped was a good example for the children now, he knew that they would take to heart his understanding of the Force and its capabilities, and thus, they would be better able to learn its mastery.
Of course, that was a long way into the future.
"Uncle Luke, when are you going to teach us more about the Force?" Jacen asked.
Luke smiled. Jacen must have somehow tuned into his thoughts. "When you're ready," he answered.
"When is that?" Jaina added.
"When you're older."
"How much older?" Anakin chimed in.
"Not too much."
"So, tomorrow?" Jaina asked hopefully.
"Not that soon." Luke faced his niece and nephews patiently. "To understand the Force, you must first understand how to control yourselves."
"Jaina and I control Anakin just fine," Jacen announced proudly.
"That's not how I mean."
"I got control!" Anakin shouted with a smile.
Luke shook his head. "You're all just too young yet," he said with a smile. "Don't worry, you'll soon be old enough." And although he had not said anything untoward, another trickle of what seemed to be guilt washed over Luke as he watched the children hang their heads. "Besides," he began in an effort to cheer them up, "you already know more about the Force than I did at your age. I didn't even know what the Force was."
Jacen and Jaina shared a secretive smile. "So, when did you learn about the Force, Uncle Luke?" Jaina asked, innocence once again infusing her tone.
"I was a teenager then."
"Long time ago, huh?" Jacen asked.
Against his will, Luke could feel his lip curl. Being reminded of one's age was never a pleasant experience. "I guess so."
"We weren't even born then!" Anakin proclaimed in childlike earnest.
The Jedi Master smiled. "No, you weren't."
"If we know about the Force now, shouldn't we be able to learn about it now?" Jaina reasoned.
"I have taught you little things, haven't I?" Luke countered, remembering to be patient. "You have learned to channel your talent into communicating between one another. You have some experience with levitating, and you are each discovering your own strengths. Things as they are, you are all learning more and more about the Force with each passing day."
Jacen shrugged. "I guess so," he conceded. "But we want to know more."
"And you will." The children were silent for a moment. Then, Luke noticed that Jaina had pulled out her multi-tool – a gift from her father and by no means, a completely equipped multi-tool – and was fidgeting with it.
"What are you doing?" Luke asked, genuinely curious.
"I was going to turn off the stove," she answered.
His brow furrowed as he contemplated that response. "You don't need the tool to do that," he said in warning.
She merely pointed behind him. Jacen and Anakin followed suit.
Luke turned to find the sandwiches on fire.
He hurriedly squelched the fire, using the Force to freeze the sandwiches as he simultaneously switched off the gas on the stove-top.
The children ran around the kitchen in a panic, yelling that the apartment was going to burn down.
& & & &
Later, when the children were calmed down and with a new set of sandwiches in tow, Luke came to where the children were sitting. Setting the plates in front of them with all of the skill of a seasoned waitress, he then went about preparing their drinks: glasses of cold, blue milk.
Luke turned around when he noticed that the children were abnormally quiet. He saw that they all were looking hesitantly at their plates.
"Are these the burned ones?" Anakin finally asked.
Jaina slapped a hand over her younger brother's mouth. Jacen promptly moved to cover for her. "Oh, silly Anakin," he said in a dramatically pleasant voice, "these look much better than the burned ones!"
"Besides, Annie," Jaina added, "they aren't frozen. Are you blind?"
Luke sighed. The fact was that Anakin was far from blind. "They might be a little over-done," he admitted, gazing at the blackened bread that must have had all of the taste of charred wood. "But they should be alright."
Cooking something as simple as a grilled cheese was harder than it seemed, the Jedi Master shook his head. He fleetingly wondered how he had survived on his own cooking for so long. Of course, Luke didn't really cook all that much for himself. Rations – and whatever the galley of the Jedi Academy served – were usual his order of the day. The realization was practically shameful. Even Han was a better hand in the kitchen than he was.
The children nibbled at the bread, occasionally taking larger bites in the less-burned areas. He noticed their shared looks with one another and saw how they were taking even larger gulps of milk with each forced bite. They aren't so much eating as they are enduring, Luke noted with some chagrin.
Just as he was getting ready to tell them that they could always order delivery of something – anything – Jaina spoke up, her voice uncertain, "Uncle Luke?"
"Yes?"
"How is it possible that the outside is all burned while the cheese isn't even melted?"
Luke burst out laughing. He couldn't help it. How in the Force had he managed that? No wonder the kids weren't eating! His laughter was contagious, and the kids were soon giggling with him.
"That's okay, Uncle Luke!"
"And how's that, Anakin?"
"Mom can't cook either!"
That particular comment sent the children rolling with laughter.
And Luke decided to look for a directory of available delivery restaurants.
