Luke sat kicking his legs on a bench that was placed right in front of the Selrana Inn. Watching a group of kids run past, he let out a sigh. He was so bored. Did his father really just plan on sitting right here for the entire hour they were stuck waiting for the fuel?
"Well hello there you two." a cheerful voice sounded from the entrance to the inn.
The young boy turned his head and examined the woman, she was vaguely familiar. Could that be the doctor that diagnosed him?
"Good morning, Dr. Ralou." His father answered, sounding very business-like.
"Look at you, Luke, you look a lot better today!" she grinning at him.
He nodded returning the smile, "I certainly feel a lot better. Thanks for your help."
"No problem! Well I would love to stay and talk, but duty calls. I just got a com from someone; said they found a man with a wounded leg sitting in the snow."
Luke snuck a gaze up at his father who showed no emotion what so ever.
"Apparently it was a blaster malfunction and he shot himself. Can you believe the bad luck?" she said adjusting the strap on her bag, "Well I better get going, see you two around." She hustled off throwing a wave over her shoulder.
"I guess our Faust friend didn't rat us out." Luke said before chuckling, "I think you did a good job in scaring him into secrecy."
Vader nodded with arms folded across his chest, "It would appear so."
The two fell back into silence. Another five minutes passed with Luke growing more stir crazy by the second. Finally, he could not take it anymore. He recalled seeing the frozen body of water from the window of their room yesterday; maybe he could go check it out. It sure beat sitting here and watching other people have fun.
The young Jedi leapt to his feet, "I'm going to look at the lake that's behind here." He said gesturing to the inn.
"Do so, but be sure not to wonder far."
Luke rolled his eyes, "Don't worry I won't. Yeesh never would have taken you for the mother hen type."
Vader's eyes narrowed at the comment, but Luke did not stick around much longer to figure out just how mad it had made him.
As he rounded the corner of the building, the lake came into view. It wasn't terribly big and was accented with a few bare trees and one lone street light. Scanning the area, he was a bit surprised to find no one was here.
Luke walked up to the edge where snow met ice. Biting his lip he stared at his blurred reflection. He had seen holos of people glide across ice with blades on their feet and it looked like so much fun. Surely it couldn't be terribly hard, it was like walking, only you slid a little.
Doing one final look around to make sure he was alone, Luke placed one booted foot onto the ice then another. He held his hands out and tried to take another step, but it was too wide and his feet immediately started slipping, he threw out his arms to catch himself, but it was to no avail. He lost his balance and fell backwards, cracking his head against the ice. Han would probably say it was a good thing he had a thick skull or else he'd be out cold.
Sitting up, he rubbed his head. Alright, so maybe this wasn't as easy as he thought.
"I somehow knew you would not be able to remain off the ice." Luke twisted his body around to see his father standing a few feet away shaking his head, "I presume you have never skated before."
"There's not exactly a lot of ice on Tatooine." He replied sarcastically.
"Do you require assistance?"
"No I got it." He attempted to stand, but found he couldn't regain his footing and kept falling back onto his knees. His cheeks were now red, "Okay so I might need a little help."
His father let out an amused chuckle before he approached him. The man stepped on the ice and gracefully slid next to the fallen boy. Vader held out two hands which Luke immediately grasped and used to pull himself up. The moment he was back to standing he felt his feet begin to slide apart into an uncomfortable split.
"Put your feet close together."
Luke struggled to pull his feet together, but managed.
His father shook his head, "You are too stiff, you will find yourself right back on the ground if you do not relax. Try bending your legs and your back."
Luke followed the instructions and scrunched his nose at the awkward position, "I feel silly."
"You would feel even more so if you are not able to remain on your feet for more than a few seconds."
His father had a point.
Suddenly the older man began sliding backwards dragging the alarmed blond with him, "H-hey what are you doing."
"This would be a lot simpler with the proper skating shoes, but this will have to suffice. Slowly move your feet like mine." Luke tightened his grip on his father's hands and tried copying him, "You are doing well, son."
Vader slowly released the hold of him and Luke panicked, "Where are you going."
"You cannot expect to use me as a crutch; you must do it by yourself."
And for the first few steps, the Jedi did indeed skate by himself, but he slowly became more wobbly and then he made the mistake of looking down at his feet. Within moments of shifting his gaze he began to plummet forward and tumbled onto the hard ice.
His father was beside him in seconds lifting him back onto his feet, "Try again, this time take smaller steps."
Once again the older man released his hold on him and Luke adapted his movements. He was moving slowly, but he was not falling down.
"I'm doing it!" he cheered, though it sounded more like a squeal with his high pitched voice, "How do I turn?"
He attempted to, but found his feet just slipping around as he continued in his original direction.
"Without blades you cannot turn so easily. You must wait until you come to a near stop than you can change directions."
Luke did so, only slightly losing his balance in the process, but managed to regain it smoothly. He continued practicing making turns and was so focused on the task he did not realize he was set on a collision course with his father until it was too late! He frantically tried to stop which only caused him to lose his center of balance and pitch forward. He wrapped his arms around the older man's leg and used it to steady himself.
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Vader looked down in amusement at the top of the boy's head who was still concentrating on getting his feet back under him. The gesture made the Sith think of the way small children cling to their parents when learning to walk or when in foreign situations.
His son at last let go and stood on his own once more. Luke raised his head revealing his smile, "I'm starting to think stopping is impossible without blades."
The child's nose and cheeks were red, but not from embarrassment, just from exposure to the frigid temperature. He was surprised Luke was smiling at him and not trying to push away in a humiliated frenzy. At what point had Luke become so comfortable around him?
"You are a fast learner." The Dark Lord praised.
"Father, if you were also raised on Tatooine, who taught you how to skate?"
Recollections of memories flew through Vader's mind before he could stop them. He could see Obi-Wan coaching him patiently and then doubled over laughing at his fantastical failed attempts. He remembered the triumphant feeling of pulling his old master down onto the ice with him. The Dark Lord ground his teeth and pushed the memories back down deep inside him.
Luke was all too talented at resurfacing a past he thought he had successfully buried.
"I believe we have wasted enough time. Come let us check on the shipment."
His son let out a frustrated sigh, but followed him off the ice and back around to the front of the inn. From a distance, Vader saw the crates of fuel being unloaded by the employee they had briefly talked with earlier. From inside the garage, old man Edich observed him work looking unimpressed.
The two made their way over to the shop and Ed greeted them out front, "The fuels finally here. You pay up and I'll have Sosno get you what you want." Vader assumed Sosno was the employee.
Ed was willing to haggle over the price, but with unlimited credits at his disposal and being constrained by time, Vader settled on the first amount given to him. It clearly shocked the man, but he was more than happy to accept all the credits.
"You heard the man, Sosno! Bring a container over here!"
Sosno, who clearly had not been following their conversation gave a startled jump, but hurriedly followed through with the order. Soon the fuel was set down in front of him.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
Picking up the container and placing it under his arm, Vader nodded at Ed and left with Luke at his side. It was not long before they were nearing the outskirts of the town heading back to their ship.
"That was a nice place, too cold for me, though." Luke said, "I can't wait to see, Artoo. Hopefully his parts aren't frozen-"
His son came to a stop as they reached the perimeter where the snow went from being low to piled high above him, "Stang, not again." He moped, slouching a little.
Vader did not think twice about it, he scooped his child up into his remaining arm and began working his way through the deep snow. Luke did not seem alarmed by being held this time though the Sith could tell that his son still did not enjoy it as his grumpy expression clearly showed.
The trek back to their ship was a quiet one as Vader took notice of his son slowly drooping lower and relaxing into the hold. Soon the boy's head was completely resting against his shoulder where Luke eventually fell asleep. He was not surprised by his child's dozing. His son had put a lot of strain on his body today with running after the Faust right after overcoming a sickness.
He had to admit to himself, though, he enjoyed the peace of the walk and the way Luke nuzzled his head into his neck.
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When Luke awoke he found himself not being carried by his father, but back on the bunk in the ship. Exhaustion must have crept up on him while they traveled to get back here. This body required much more sleep than his twenty-two year old one did. He wished his father would have woken him up instead of letting him sleep. He always felt like he was missing something when he was asleep.
The young Jedi rolled off the bed and stretched as far as his limbs would allow. For the first time since regaining consciousness he realized he was no longer in his snow gear. He supposed his father had taken and stored it away.
Exiting the room he saw the older man sitting in the cockpit with Artoo at his side, both framed by the countless stars of space. The droid spun his domed head and his front lights flashed in happiness as he chirped a greeting.
"Good to see you too, buddy." Luke smiled and made his way over to join them, "I hope you were good while we were gone."
His friend beeped back in response.
"Your droid turned on the outer heating shields to melt the snow that had collected on the ships exterior before we arrived. The action allotted us a swifter departure."
Patting Artoo's top in thanks, the young rebel said, "Good job, Artoo." he then turned to his father and continued with agitation seeping into his voice, "I see that you refueled the ship and left Ladon already. You know, you could have woken me up."
"Believe me, young one, I did put in an effort. It would seem you are a heavy sleeper."
That was strange. Sure as a child he was a heavy sleeper, but after his late teens he found himself to wake at the slightest of sounds….but wait….he technically was a child again.
Luke groaned, "Exactly how long was I out of commission?"
"Little over an hour." Vader stated simply.
"I guess that's not too bad considering I spent all of yesterday sleeping." He shrugged, sitting in the co-pilots seat.
It was odd to think that they were about to find Vindi, then he would return back to his normal age. Luke was surprised by the sudden sadness that washed over him. Why was that? It was not because he would miss this body, no, he could not wait to have his old one back but….After he returns to normal that would mean he would have to leave his father and go back to the Rebels. And after everything they had been through they would just go back to being enemies.
He bit his lip. He knew when it came down to it he could not fight his father. But would his father carry the same sentiment? And what if the man tried hurting his friends? There is no way he could stand aside and let that happen. Then what would he do if his friends were to try and kill his father? Could he let them? Luke could feel a headache coming on. Everything was so muddled and complicated now.
He supposed it would all be revealed soon enough.
AN: And there you have it, after a somewhat long wait, the next chapter. Thank you all for your encouraging words especially while I was going through that funk, it really helped pull me out of it and now I am feeling 100% better!
Just to let you all know, I have had zero experience with snow or ice so I just watched some youtube videos to try to gather what first time skaters typically do. So any inaccuracies there just take with a grain of salt, I really enjoyed how the scene turned out none the less. Hope you all enjoyed the fluff before the storm.