Obi-Wan sighed as he heard a yelp from the hallway outside the cockpit followed by a few Corellian swear words. The ship had seemed like a good investment at the time, but now that they had been in it for a few days, there were new repairs needing to be done being found every other minute or so. He checked the chronometer and got up to see what was wrong since they still had an hour to go until they met Bail Organa at the rendezvous point he had given them. Obi-Wan found Padme scolding Han as she put a bacta patch on a burned finger of his. He heard a sizzling sound and followed it to a sparking wire that had come loose from the ceiling and broken the ceiling tile on the floor. He wordlessly grabbed the wooden old style broom and used the handle to push the wire back into the ceiling for the moment and swept up the ceiling tile pieces with the same implement.

"Thank you, Ben," Padme said tiredly. She had a bruise on her left cheek from when the stabilizer had decided to act up during their last landing and sent her flying towards the control panel. She refused to admit that trading ships had been a mistake, or that at the very least she could have been a little more judicious in finding a new one. The one bright spot that they had agreed on was that there was more room for four people and a feline on the freighter.

Han scowled at the ceiling tile and then addressed Obi-Wan: "I can find the fuse for that and turn it off so I can fix the wire. It doesn't look like it would affect anything major." The boy had tried to make himself as useful as possible, and while he wasn't the best mechanic, he was a fast learner and was adequate enough to be trusted with simple repairs that he and Padme didn't have time for.

"I think we should probably wait to address that after we have landed, just in case," Obi-Wan said carefully so as not to insult the boy. "We have discovered that fixing one electrical issue sometimes cascades into other issues after that," he said as he remembered trying to fix a simple flickering light, only to have somehow overloaded the air output system and created a giant cold spot in the middle of the ship. Luke's whining over the cold in one of the few areas of the ship where he was allowed had nearly driven him to just throw himself out of an airlock. "We shall be at our destination in about an hour, so I suggest that we all go ahead and get ourselves looking presentable."

"That sounds like a great idea, Ben," Padme said. "I need to make sure that this hair color is rinsed out completely. I'd hate to have stains show up on my tunic during a crucial moment during our meeting." She had dyed her hair a similar non-descript brown to match Obi-Wan's new hair color more closely. If they were going to be posing still as brother and sister, then they needed to make some more effort to make it believable. They had decided to keep the sibling dynamic going so as not to confuse Luke and have him blurt something out that contradicted any new story they could have concocted. They were still working on changing certain details so as not to be traced back to the family on Dantooine, if anyone asked, but those were the kinds of things that a four year old didn't pay attention to anyway.

Obi-Wan raised one eyebrow at Han who merely looked down at his simple tunic and pants and shrugged. Obi-Wan leveled his best glare at him and looked pointedly at the grease stains that were prominently displayed across his belly and Han relented with a huff, stomping off dramatically as he went. Han absently ruffled Luke's hair as he passed him in the hall. Luke smiled widely and ran up to Obi-Wan: "Uncle Ben! Petey found another mouse! Can we throw it out the airlock?" he asked excitedly. This had become Luke's new favorite game - following Petey around as he found critters on the ship and then disposing of them via the airlock.

"Are you sure we should take every meal away from him?" Obi-Wan asked with some amusement. "Let's let him enjoy this catch for a while. If he hasn't eaten it after we've changed your tunic and brushed your hair, then we can throw it out of the airlock. Deal?"

Luke pouted with disappointment for a second but relented. "Ok," he said as he picked at his tunic, which still had remains from his last meal on it. His fine motor skills still needed some work when it came to eating noodles. "Is that where Han went?" he asked as he nodded towards where Han had left. Luke had a serious case of hero worship when it came to the newest addition to their little "family".

"Yes, he did. As did your mother," Obi-Wan said as he took Luke's hand and led him to the crew quarters he had claimed. Padme and Luke were sharing the captain's cabin and Han had taken the other crew quarter. However, owing to lack of space, Obi-Wan had agreed to keep both his and Luke's meager wardrobe in his quarters. He walked in and saw that Padme had already been in there and laid out a simple blue tunic for Luke to wear on the bottom bunk. The top bunk was currently being used as clothing storage until they either found an appropriate or clean space to use on the ship.

"How come we gotta change clothes? Are they fancy people?" Luke asked as Obi-Wan removed his current tunic and made sure none of the foodstuffs had gone through the fabric and onto his skin.

"No, they're not inordinately fancy," Obi-Wan replied as he jiggled the top of the tunic in an exaggerated manner over Luke's head to the boy's giggles. "It's just." An arm was now pulled through and shaken. "Rude." Another arm pulled through and shaken. "To be unkempt when meeting friends," he finished as he shook the tunic all the way down to cover the giggling boy's belly.

"We didn't have to clean up before," Luke said as he tried to dart away from the brush that was coming towards him.

"Well, that was different. We were farming and we rarely went anywhere now, did we?" Obi-Wan said as he wrestled Luke and trapped him between his thighs. Luke shook his head and tried to duck the brush to no avail. "That looks much better. Your mother might even be willing to claim you as her son in public now," he said as he released Luke. "Don't you dare!" he admonished with a glare as Luke threatened to run his hands through his hair and mess it up with an impish smile. Luke giggled again and then scampered off to check if his pet had consumed his catch.

Obi-Wan shook his head fondly. He hated to admit it, but he had definitely gotten attached to Luke. Things were occasionally shaky with Padme still, but he figured he was attached to her as well, just not as strongly yet. He didn't know about how he would feel about Han, but he had started to get used to the boy whose attitude was reminiscent of Anakin's at times. And that is not why I brought him along, he thought to himself. The Force said that he was important, there's no other reason. He sighed and went to change his own tunic, which Padme had picked out for him as well. He wondered if this was how Anakin and Padme's married moments had been and felt a stab of guilt when he realized that he had probably spent more time with Padme in the last year than Anakin had in the entirety of their three year marriage. He shook himself from those thoughts as he went back towards where he knew Luke was and tried not to think of how useful Anakin would be for all the mechanical issues their ship had.

He knelt down next to the little boy who was looking on in horrified fascination as the cat was finishing up the remains of his meal. "Well, looks like he was hungry after all," he said as he tried to ignore the sounds of crunching bones. "Aren't you glad we didn't throw away his snack now?"

"Yeah, I guess," Luke said distractedly, still entranced by the macabre display of raw nature in front of him.

"How about you come with me and help me fly this ship, hmm?" Obi-Wan suggested to Luke's immediate delight.

Padme smiled as her son bounded past her to the cockpit with bright eyes and a wide grin, followed by a cleaned up Obi-Wan with a fond look on his face. "Lively little thing that he is," he said as he sauntered past. Her heart warmed at how Obi-Wan had thawed out over time. She knew that he was not Luke's father, nor would he ever want to be, but she was glad of his presence now. She had wondered about having a strong and good male influence in Luke's life and couldn't think of anyone better. She eyed Han in her peripheral vision as he tugged on his new tunic as he made his way to the cockpit as well. While she had initially wondered what Obi-Wan had been thinking in bringing Han aboard, she had gotten used to his presence rather quickly, abrasive as it could be at times. Luke already adored him, and he was remarkably patient with her little son, which was especially helpful when she and Obi-Wan were busy and couldn't necessarily devote any attention to him. Besides, it looked like Han could use a good male and female influence in his life.

"I need everyone to strap in, as we will be reverting to realspace soon," Obi-Wan announced. She broke from her musings and went to the copilot's seat after ensuring that both boys were strapped in tightly. Han scowled, but she knew that he secretly enjoyed having someone fuss over him. She wondered when the last time anyone had done so, but decided not to dwell on that at the moment as the lines of hyperspace dissolved.

Han whistled lowly at the frigate in front of them - a Mon Cal design. They had agreed to meet with Bail outside of Alderaan and at the coordinates he had given them without questioning why they would be sitting in the middle of space with no systems nearby. They were hailed and Padme entered the codes that they had been given. They were tractored in and she chanced a look at Luke's wide eyed and open mouthed face.

Padme smiled and then looked ahead as she steeled herself to meet with the man who had been raising her daughter for her entire four years of life so far.