"Destiny"
By EsmeAmelia
AN: As I always say, thanks for the reviews!
Chapter 14
"Luke!"
Luke jolted awake at the sound of his fiancee's voice, thinking at first to ignore it but sensing that she wouldn't leave him alone until he acknowledged her. He slowly opened his eyes and practically jumped when he discovered her face just a few inches above his.
"Riaaannnnaaaa?" he slurred in a groggy voice.
"Luke!" Rianna repeated, grinning at his sleepy face. "Luke, I need to ask you something. Something important."
"What?" Luke asked after a yawn.
"How's your head doing? Is it better?" she said in a rapid voice.
Luke rubbed his sore, still-bandaged head. It still hurt, but not quite as badly as it did when they first crash landed here...assuming he was awake enough to tell. "It's a bit better..."
"Good," said Rianna. Without any sort of preparation, she threw herself on him and kissed his lips in a frantic, hungry manner, pressing her hands against his cheeks, sucking on his lips for several long seconds.
Luke struggled to get his lips apart from hers long enough to speak. "Ri...Ri...Rianna?" He paused a second while she kissed him again. "Honey, what's going on?"
"Don't ask me that yet," the former queen answered. "I just...need you right now."
Luke didn't need the Force to tell why his fiancee was like this. "You found her, didn't you?"
Rianna paused between kisses barely long enough to give a small nod.
Luke gripped her shoulders and gently pushed upwards, separating their lips. "Well, what was she like?"
"I can tell you that later, can't I?" Rianna retorted. "Please, let's just...enjoy the moment."
Luke felt his cheeks warming up at the implication of her statement. "Honey...are you sure you want this tonight? What about...timing?"
"I don't care," Rianna said simply. "I need you."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Rianna lay in the dark, her head nestled on Luke's bare chest, inhaling his scent with every breath, absorbing his soft fingertips stroking her neck. Her own fingers stroked his artificial hand, which was resting right next to her face. Luke often looked at that hand with disdain, but she had never known him without it. For her, it was as much a part of him as his real hand was. She savored the metal under her fingers.
"Rianna?" her future husband whispered, making her jump slightly.
"What?" she whispered back.
"Are you ready to tell me now?"
Rianna sighed into his chest. "There's not really much to tell. My mother fled the Empire and took refuge here."
"Was she really a Jedi?" Luke asked.
"Well...she had a lightsaber."
Luke's fingers tapped her neck. "Do you think...she would be interested in helping me at the Jedi Academy?"
Rianna looked up at him, digging her chin into his skin. "Is that all you can say? All you can think of?"
"Rianna, it was just..."
"You're still disappointed that I'm not a Jedi?" Rianna interrupted, her voice growing louder. "You still haven't gotten over that, so you wonder if my mother would be more willing to accept your offer?"
"Rianna..."
"I mean, your mother says that the old Jedi Order would give parents almost no choice in giving up their Force-sensitive children - maybe you want your Order to be just like that. You already want Leia and Han's children to be Jedi even though they're barely old enough to talk. Hell, I know you'll want to train our children too if we ever have them..." She abruptly ceased talking, having not meant for that last part to come out...yet she realized it was true. If one of their own children opted not to become a Jedi, how would Luke handle that? Her head dropped and her cheek pressed against her fiance's chest, not wanting to see his reaction to her anger.
The silence seemed to last for hours before Luke finally spoke. "Our children...?"
"Forget I said that," Rianna mumbled. "We're not going to have them anyway."
Luke's metal hand dropped onto the mattress. "What??"
"You heard me," said Rianna, refusing to look at him. "We're not going to have children. At all."
"Rianna, I understand your not being ready, but..."
"It's not a matter of mere 'not being ready,'" Rianna snapped. "You preach so much about facing the dark side - but you never actually turned to it. You didn't willingly let your soul disappear, you didn't choose to give yourself up, you weren't so...weak as I was."
Luke ferociously grabbed his fiancee's shoulders, forcing her to look him in the face. "Rianna listen to me. You're not weak. You've never been weak. Only someone with incredible strength could have conquered the dark side like you did."
"You keep talking like I conquered the dark side all by myself, but you know I didn't." She lowered her head, avoiding his eyes. "Our children may not be so lucky as to have your mother around to save them."
Luke sighed. "But we just..."
"That was a mistake," Rianna said harshly. "I wasn't thinking clearly."
Luke sighed again. "You really seemed to enjoy that 'mistake'..." he muttered.
The former queen pushed herself up on her arms, crawling backwards until she was able to sit up. She felt around on the bedpost until she found her nightgown, then she hastily pulled it over her head.
"Honey, I'm sorry," said Luke. "I shouldn't have brought that up." He sat up and began stroking her shoulder. "And just so you know, if our children decide that they don't want to be Jedi, I'll be perfectly fine with that."
"You say that now, but you won't mean it later," Rianna replied with a sniff, struggling to get her arms through the sleeves. "I'm going back to bed before we wake anyone up."
Luke reached for her crutch. "I'll help you."
"I can do it myself," she insisted, grabbing her crutch before Luke could get to it. With a large amount of struggling, she forced herself to her feet, her crutch sliding across the floor to get her to her bed next to Luke's.
"Good night," Luke said faintly.
Rianna pulled the covers over her head, hoping sleep wouldn't elude her tonight. "Good night."