Luke finally dragged himself home well past midnight. Anakin welcomed his son, reaching out to him, wanting to hug him and hoping that it would make everything better.

Luke pushed past silently, slamming the door to his room behind him.

"Luke?"

The boy didn't respond, though.

"Luke? Where have you been?"

Still, Luke didn't answer.

Anakin turned away, telling himself that his son just needed to be alone again. It was natural. He needed some space before he could cope with any interaction. When he felt ready, he would leave his room and ask his father for help.

Anakin sat back down on the sofa, waiting nervously for the boy to give up and leave his room. He didn't notice his son's presence fade.

He was beginning to drift off himself when he realized that Luke had fallen asleep long ago.

He returned to the door and knocked softly, "Luke?"

No answer.

He opened the door and stepped inside, seeing his son curled up on his bed, fast asleep.

Anakin looked at his sleeping son a moment before taking a seat next to the boy. Asleep, he looked as young and harmless as ever, like someone who needed to be protected. How had this same child been screaming at his father only a few hours ago?

"Luke?"

Luke didn't stir.

"I just wanted to say I love you, and goodnight," Anakin told the sleeping boy. Luke always liked to be told to have a good night.

It had been something Anakin had done at first simply out of habit. He had always told his own son to sleep well, and it had easily carried over to this Luke as well. Luke had loved it, grasped it with all his strength. It seemed very comforting to be reminded of his father's love every night. It separated Anakin from Vader, Anakin assumed.

"I'm sorry we fought. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

Luke still didn't stir, his face didn't change into a smile as it usually did when his father comforted him, even when he was asleep.

"I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise."

He stood and left his son to sleep.

He took a seat in the living room, activating his comlink.

"Obi-Wan, have you seen Luke since our fight?"

"Yes. I told him to go home a few hours ago, didn't he make it back?"

"He's back. I just wanted to know where he'd been."

"He was curled up in my bed, asleep, when I found him. I woke him up and we talked for a while. I tried to tell him that you're doing your best."

"Thank you, but he still seemed pretty angry."

"He's homesick."

"He told me. I just can't believe it. Are you absolutely certain he's not just sick?"

"Not completely. That didn't occur to me."

"I'm going to take his temperature."

"Is he awake?"

"No, why?"

"Anakin, he might choke on the thermometer."

"I'll wake him, then."

"When he's already angry with you?" Anakin could almost see Obi-Wan raising his eyebrows, although the feed was voice only.

"I guess not. I'll at least feel his forehead, though."

"You might wake him," Obi-Wan cautioned.

"No. He's out cold. I was already in there."

"Why did you do that?"

"I needed to say goodnight to him. He told me that it was important to him that I do that."

"Oh, yes."

Anakin walked into his son's room and gently laid a hand across the boy's forehead.

"He doesn't have a temperature."

"I'm not surprised. You're overreacting, Anakin."

"He's my son! I'm not supposed to hurt him!"

"You didn't mean to. You've saved him from much worse pain, and you both know that. Sometimes you won't get along, but that's what comes of having a child. He does love you, and he knows that you love him, but you really have to let him go a little bit further from you."

Looking at his sleeping son, Anakin was overcome with a feeling of dependency, "I don't want to."

"You're too possessive."

"I know."

"You're used to being the only person in your son's life."

"I am."

"But this Luke is different. He has the capacity to cope with more than one person in his life. Has he made any friends yet?"

"Not really, but it's because we've been spending so much time together."

"You mean because you've been guarding him too closely."

Anakin felt a twinge of shame, "Yes."

"Ben?" Luke rolled over, his eyes starting to flutter open.

"Luke?" Obi-Wan's voice answered.

"Yeah, he's waking up."

"I should let you work this out, then."

Anakin was very tempted to beg Obi-Wan to stay and keep them from hurting each other, but he forced himself to let his best friend go for the time being.

"Luke."

Luke's eyes opened a little further and he looked up at his father.

"Dad."

Anakin felt a sinking in his stomach. Dad was the least affectionate term his son ever used for him. Daddy was standard, and Father meant Vader, and, he nearly smiled to himself, when Luke was feeling especially good, he tended to make up words to tell his father how much he loved him.

"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I didn't mean to. I didn't know you could be so homesick for a monster like Vader."

Luke instantly broke down, grabbing Anakin's neck and clinging to him with all his strength. Anakin snuggled him close, trying to comfort him. Luke sobbed for several minutes before he spoke.

"It's not just Father."

"It isn't?"

"Daddy,"

Anakin let out a tiny sigh of relief.

"It's just that… your other son was never up to having any friends, and so far I've just wanted to be with you because… it's so different to be loved. But in my home galaxy, I have friends, and I miss them too."

"Oh," Anakin said. Of course Luke had friends he would miss! He was probably very lonely without his twin sister. Anakin felt a twinge of regret as he realized it was probably the first time they'd ever been separated.

"I'm sorry, it didn't occur to me that I was taking you away from anyone but him."

"You weren't. Not really. He had me prisoner. But it's just that… I mean, they're not doing the huge Imperial power announcements showing me anymore. They stopped when I was unable to stop crying. But I'm afraid that Father will introduce your son to my galaxy. Father would be so proud to have a son he could count on not to mess everything up. A son who is anyone but me," Luke began to cry again, and Anakin held him close, wanting to take away the boy's pain more than anything in the galaxy.

"He doesn't hate you, Luke. He just wanted you to need him a little more."

"I do need him! I need him more than anyone or anything else in the entire galaxy! I need him to love me! All I need is for him to care about me! He just doesn't have time for taking care of me, because there's something wrong with me! I don't know what it is, or how it happened, but something must have made him choose to treat me the way he has."

Anakin didn't know how to answer, so he just rocked his son a few more times and made comforting noises in his throat.

"And the reason I'm so upset is that I think that Leia and Han will think that he's me. What if they think that Father did something terrible to me that made me like that? I mean, there was nothing wrong with it in your son, because he was born that way, but if I was like that it would mean that Father had practically bashed my head in!"

"Your friends would love you anyway."

"What if they liked me better like that? What if they preferred a me who couldn't speak? What if I was to go back and they were all disappointed?"

"Luke, your friends love you. They don't care if you can speak. All they care about is that it's you."

"I'm also scared for Father. Of him. For him. I mean, I'm afraid of him in a way that's not the way you're thinking of."

"What way is that?"

"I'm afraid that if I'd waited long enough he might have decided that he cared about me. I'm afraid that… I don't know. That I abandoned him or something ridiculous like that."

"I feel the same way about letting my son go. Don't worry, I'm sure he feels bad about leaving you as well."

Luke let out a despairing wail, "That's exactly what I'm worried about! I don't want him to feel bad!"

"Luke, after everything he did to you, how can you care about that?"

"I don't know," Luke whimpered, "He's the only family I've ever known."

"You've had your sister."

"Oh, right, Leia."

"You forgot your sister?" Anakin asked, incredulous in spite of himself.

Luke relapsed into tears, "I only just found out about her! The day before I was taken to prison! I never even got to tell her!"

"She doesn't know?"

"She's never going to know!"

"You mean you didn't grow up together?"

"Haven't I said that? Haven't I mentioned that I was taken away from my family?"

"I'm not sure. I know you said something about Vader, but I thought you grew up with Leia. I guess it might have slipped by in the stream of things you had to fill me in on."

Luke let out a helpless wail, "I'm going to die here, and she's going to die there, and she's never even going to know we're related," a hysterical giggle escaped Luke, "She's never going to know she kissed her brother."

"She kissed you?"

Luke seemed shaken from his hysterical state for a moment, "She did it to mock Han."

"You were really close, weren't you?"

"As far as I feel, I had two siblings, not one. And now I'm here, and I feel awfully alone. It's not that I don't love you. Having a father who cares for me has meant everything. It's just… I want to go home."

Anakin sighed. He loved Luke, the boy he'd grown so close to. It did mean a lot to have a son who didn't burst into tears around others, who was not only not a coward, although that wasn't exactly the right word for his own son, but someone very brave. He loved watching his son learning to be a Jedi, and he loved being able to speak to people again, but he understood Luke's homesickness, and he desperately wanted his own son back, afraid that somewhere deep under his child's impermeable aimless expression, the same feelings were hidden.

"You really want to go back, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Even though you know you'll only be returning to imprisonment?"

"Yeah."

"You know I love you."

"I know."

"I'll do everything I can to get you back to your father," and get my own child back, "But promise me you'll remember that I love you if Vader is awful to you again."

"I promise, Daddy. I love you so much."