A/N: Hellllo, I know everyone's just itching to have dad Kenobi rescue his younglings but be patient, it will happen very very soon I promise! Thank you for all your comments and kindness. The story is about to enter the melting pot with everything coming together after this chapter, and I really hope you continue to enjoy it. Since you've made it this far to be reading this author's note, please leave a review, I love to hear from you guys!

P.S. The how babies are made story that Luke believes in this chap used to be what I thought as a kid! Always makes me laugh

May the Force be with you all xx

ooooo

Eating breakfast alone, Luke pushed his food around the plate in circles, not wanting to eat much at all. The food here was bland and weirdly textured like he was in the army or in a prison living off ration bars. Dad's syrupy porridge or a stack of mom's pancakes would be heaven right about now.

Looking around at the other boys who sat further away, laughing together, Luke wondered why it was that jealousy would make so many other kids dislike him. Like Leia, he'd not been enjoying life at the academy at all. But unlike Leia, he didn't usually have enemies at school. Back on Bakura, he got along with everybody. It made him feel a whole new kind of awful when the other boys ignored him or belittled him in front of others. For the first time in his life, his self-confidence had shattered. Now, he didn't try to make friends at all. He kept to himself. It was better to be alone, than to get rejected and ridiculed.

Having an early training session, the boys in his class ate quickly before the rest of the year group, including Leia, arrived for their breakfast. In the dawn fog, they were made to meditate in the cold before starting an intensive running session in a bleak looking courtyard made of pavement and surrounded by high wire fences.

Thanks to the training with his father, he was in good shape, but the physical tests here were hard, and his lungs were soon burning with exertion. To distract himself as he jogged doggedly in laps with the other boys, Luke thought up multiple escape plans. Somehow, he and Leia could steal a ship, or hide away on a cargo vessel, or maybe they could steal a stormtrooper's uniform and sneak away wearing that. But then again, maybe they were too short for that option. Even if Leia sat on his shoulders, it might look suspicious.

However, there was one problem with escaping. Would his mother or father, or little Junie be in danger if they ran away? Would the Emperor find out and hurt them somehow? Maybe when it was the Life Day holidays, he and Leia could steal mom and Junie away from Coruscant, and they could escape together to find dad.

"Luke! No stopping!" their physical exercise teacher Mr Laverick called out, and he forced himself to keep going even though his legs were turning to jelly and his chest burned.

"C'mon Luke, you're so good at everything else, but you can't run?" one of the boys from the class mocked him up ahead, turning back to laugh. Several of the other boys snickered too, calling him words like yokel, peasant and nerf-herder simply because of where he was brought up.

Cheeks burning, he simply looked down, not knowing how to deal with bullies. Usually, Leia would've leapt up in his defence, but she wasn't here to protect him now.

The constant whistles from the teacher kept the group moving though, and for once he was glad.

When the exercise class was over, he had mathematics, galactic geography, a free study period, lunch and then a whole afternoon scheduled in for 'Force training' which meant everything from meditation, to learning about Sith artefacts, to duelling with training lightsabers and learning about the dark side. He didn't like any of the classes, but the dark side ones were the worst. Afterwards, he felt cold and empty and not quite himself, just like how he'd felt meeting the Emperor. It made him shiver. The training was so different from what his father had taught him. After those sessions, he always felt full of energy and life.

Daydreaming through the first half of the day, Luke was relieved when he had his free study period. Instead of heading to the library where he usually went, he headed out to a quiet space behind the courtyard to talk to Darth Vader on his comm device.

At first, he'd been too shy to contact him, but his parents had always taught him to be kind and make friends with those who are lonely, and he knew Vader didn't have any friends of his own. Additionally, something in the Force had told him it was the right thing to do. Luke was glad that he'd been brave enough to listen to his parents and the Force.

The dark Lord had tolerated him at the beginning, but now it seemed as if he actually enjoyed speaking to him, and he talked in longer sentences each time. Luke looked forward to their calls, and reflected on how bizarre it was that he had more of a friend in Darth Vader than in any of his age mates in the academy. Shaking his head at his situation, he set the device down on the surface of a durasteel bench and waited for the call to connect, rubbing his eyes as the early start caught up with him.

After a few minutes, the Sith Lord appeared on his device, blue and flickering with his arms crossed over his chest. Luke couldn't see anything behind him, and wondered where he was.

"Hi."

"Hello Luke."

"How are you?"

Vader always seemed at a loss when he asked this, as if no one ever asked him such a basic question. "I am…fine. How have your morning classes been?"

"They were alright I guess."

Somehow, just like how mom had known something was up with Leia, Vader picked up on his tone. "Did something happen?"

"No," he replied quickly.

"Are the other children causing you problems?"

Though Luke was young and often oblivious to concealed meanings when adults talked, he could tell there was a threat in that sentence, and he quickly back peddled. "No, they're alright. Me and Leia are just fine."

Vader uncrossed his arms and breathed a few times before replying. "A child I once knew had great difficulty settling in to a new way of life. His peers were jealous of his abilities and he was quickly alienated."

Luke tried to look nonchalant. "How did he fix it?"

"He didn't."

"Oh."

"But, regardless of how he felt inside, he always asserted himself. Even though the boy was afraid, he projected confidence, and never allowed others to make him feel small."

Luke looked downward, feeling a little embarrassed that Vader had figured out he was having problems with his peers. Glancing back the way he came, he could see other children in groups, playing ball in their free period and trying to get the stormtroopers on duty to join in. It looked fun, but they wouldn't let him play with them.

"That's good and all, but it's easy for you to say. No one would dare call you a country bumpkin nerf-herder."

"No, they wouldn't."

Luke thought he could detect a note of humour in his reply, but the voice modulator was always hard to discern.

"Perhaps it would be beneficial for you to focus on your studies, instead of making friends," he continued.

"Maybe you're right. Some of the classes are okay. I do like some of the galactic geography lessons. Did you know Endor has a moon where little teddy bears live? I thought that was pretty interesting. I'd like to go there with mom," he rambled before taking a more serious tone. "But even though I like the geography lessons, I'd much rather be at my old school. Even though you said to give it some time, I still don't like it here. I want to go home."

"You already know that cannot happen. I am sorry."

Luke nodded with a crestfallen expression, drawing his knees up to his chest on the bench seat. Resting his head on them, he couldn't help but think of the Emperor and the power he had over Vader, mom and Junie. None of them could do what they truly wanted, because of that evil old man.

"Darth Vader sir? I have a question." It felt strange to call him sir, but it would've felt even stranger to call him father. He wasn't quite ready for that yet, though he had accepted the truth in his heart.

"Proceed."

"Well, I was wondering, how come you still have a Master? Dad told me that once a Jedi Padawan becomes a Knight, they no longer have a Master, and you're way higher up than a knight. So why do you have one?"

Vader didn't respond immediately, and Luke felt as if he'd overstepped a boundary with his curiosity, again. But eventually he replied. "It's different for me."

"Because you're a Sith?"

"Yes."

"I don't want to be a Sith if it means I have to have a master. When I'm grown up, I want to be free and do anything I want."

"What do you plan to do when you grow up?" Vader asked after a few moments' hesitation.

"Me and Leia are going to be explorers and have our own ship. We've already planned everything. We're going to visit every planet in the whole galaxy, and try all the different yummy foods at each one. And we're going to collect animals from every planet too as pets to live with us on the ship."

"An interesting idea."

"Yeah, we just need to save up enough money to get started. Mom said it's going to take a lot of credits," Luke replied, absently running a hand through the inch or so of cropped hair that remained on the top of his head. When they arrived, he'd been given a short back and sides military style cut which he was not a fan of.

"Mom showed us our new baby sister," he grinned, changing the subject. "I was hoping for a brother, but I think I'm okay with a sister for now."

Luke remembered mom telling him that Anakin, who became Vader, used to be her husband, but the complexities of adult partnerships, with Junie being the child of Obi-Wan and his mom, not Anakin and his mom, didn't really enter his head. All he recognised was that he had a new sibling.

Luke still wasn't completely sure how babies came about, but his friend Denni from school back on Bakura had offered him a fairly logical explanation. One day, your dad gives your mom some special fruit with seeds in it, the seeds made a baby grow inside your mom's tummy, and then your mom has to poop the baby out. When he'd told this to his parents, they'd laughed a lot, but they didn't correct him at the time. Now he wondered if Denni had got it right.

"Where do babies really come from?" he questioned innocently, seeing nothing wrong with asking. "They're not really from fruit seeds, are they?"

Vader was silent again and Luke wondered what he'd said wrong this time. Or maybe the dark Lord just liked to take a while to reply to things. "I…think this is a conversation you should have with your mother."

"Alright, I'll ask her later."

"You will have a lot of responsibility as a big brother," Vader said, seeming eager to change the subject.

"I know. I already have some games planned," Luke said, unable to keep the smile off his face. Said plans involved mud pies and ant hills, but then he remembered again that they weren't going home, and he would barely see his new sibling. "I wish I could see her in real life. Have you seen June?"

"Yes."

"Did you get to hold her?"

"No. Your mother is…overly protective."

"She sure is."

They talked for some time about other subjects, such as interesting planets and flying ships, but soon Vader was checking his chrono and sadly he had a naval meeting to attend. As their conversation drew to a close, he gave Luke some advice.

"Luke, before I go, keep in mind what I said earlier. Even if you are afraid on the inside, you must assert yourself. Never allow others to make you feel small. You are incredibly talented and the heir to a grand destiny others can only dream of."

The boy nodded, wondering if that was a good thing. "Yes sir."

"I will speak to you later. Goodbye son."

"Bye!"

The call ended and Luke was suddenly alone on the cold bench. It was hard to stay his usual cheerful self when everything was so difficult and everybody was far away.

However, as he walked back across the courtyard complex, he reflected that the conversation had made him feel a bit better about his situation. Vader was invincible, a force of nature. And Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of the strongest Jedi ever, a superhero in fact, from what mom had said. If he had two dads, and both of them were so confident, highly skilled and powerful, didn't that mean he had some of their genetics in himself? In fact, if he had two dads, then didn't that mean he inherited double the bravery? He still wasn't sure how babies worked, but surely, he had inherited some.

With a new bounce in his step, he headed back into the grey building. There wasn't long left until lunch, so he headed to the cafeteria and waited in his usual spot for Leia with a carton of juice from the vending machine. The large grey hall was busy with students, serving droids, stormtroopers on guard and teachers, and he felt self-conscious sitting alone at one of the benches, but he tried to keep Vader's words in his mind.

"Hey Luke, are you going to get any other friends? Family doesn't count," sneered one of the boys from his mathematics class.

The boy's name was Rudi; he was dark haired and built like a brick. Even though he was nine years old like him, he was still growing in some of his adult teeth which made him look like a pirate.

"I don't need any other friends," Luke asserted himself, forcing his voice to be louder than it was. He glared at him and put down his juice box. "Especially if they're anything like you."

Slightly taken aback by his change in character, the boy puffed out his chest and moved closer. One of his friends joined him, a mean looking blue Chagrian boy, and a few others nearby from younger and older year groups were looking on at the confrontation.

"You think you're so high above us, don't you?"

"No. I don't," he replied seriously.

"Yes you do. Everyone here thinks you're hiding something."

"Hiding something?" he repeated, trying to sound sceptical though Rudi was telling the truth. "Like what?"

"Something big. You act like a stupid farm boy, but somehow, you're better in all the Force classes, and everyone knows you get to speak to your mom, when no one else does. Why?"

Luke bristled but remained level headed somehow. He doubted Leia would've been able to do so. "Why do you care?"

"Because it's not fair!" he snapped.

"I'm bad at math class, why don't you focus on that to stop yourself getting jealous."

"I'm not jealous, nerf-herder."

"Sure sounds like it."

His heart was hammering beneath his cadet jacket but somehow, he kept his confidence. More and more kids were starting to catch on that there may or may not be a fight about to break out and were looking over at them. Thankfully none of the teachers had noticed yet.

"I'm going to find out who you are, you and your annoying sister."

"Like everyone keeps saying, I'm just a nerf-herding farm boy from Bakura okay, why can't you just drop it?" he said tersely, trying to think of what Vader would say in this situation. "Your jealousy is clouding your judgement."

"My jealously is clouding my judgement?" he scoffed, taking a step closer and placing his hands down on the edge of the table. "You are getting treated better than everyone else, and there must be a reason. When I got taken from my mom, they never let me talk to her ever again."

For a moment Luke felt terrible for Rudi, but there was nothing he could do about it.

"I'm sorry."

This seemed to make him angrier. "Shut up."

"No, you shut up," Luke asserted himself, trying to channel confidence like the boy in Vader's story had done. He looked the bully square in the eye. "If you want to fight me, you know I'll best you. So leave me alone."

Rudi searched for something to say. It was obvious from his silence that Luke was correct. Immediately the friend by his side and the other kids watching seemed to look differently at Rudi, and Luke saw that the bully had lost face from this encounter.

"What's going on?" a familiar girl's voice cut through the tense silence.

"Leia, Rudi was just leaving," Luke said, not breaking eye contact with the bully.

"Pathetic nerf-herder," Rudi glared at him but retreated along with his friend.

"Yeah that's right, run you coward," Leia said to his retreating back, and Luke had to drag her backwards to sit beside him, not wanting her to start a full on brawl in the canteen.

The other children watched as he left, but no one tried to bother them. After a few moments everyone was going back to their meals and the chatter around them returned. As his heart rate calmed back to a normal rate, Luke felt immensely proud of himself. He'd done it! It was a small victory, but he stood up for himself without Leia's help. Vader, mom and dad would all be so proud of him.

"What's his problem?" Leia said, turning to face him with a frown.

"Jealous."

"Everyone around here seems to be like that," she sighed. "Want me to go deal with him?"

"Leia…"

"Okay okay. I just don't like anyone picking on you."

"I can stand up for myself," he lowered his voice. "Vader gave me some good advice."

"Vader?" she whispered.

He nodded. "Now c'mon, let's queue up for some food."

Later on, as they ate another unappetising military-style lunch, Luke talked to Leia about making Darth Vader a gift to say thank you. He doubted anyone ever gave him presents, so he would be sure to make it extra special. But what should he make?

The two of them couldn't come up with anything, but the answer came much sooner than expected as soon as lunch break had ended.

The first lesson scheduled in for his afternoon of Force training was something he hadn't been anticipating at such a strict school. Apparently, twice a month they had an art class to keep their minds 'innovative' though he wasn't sure what that word meant.

He'd enjoyed art projects back in his old school, and in their cottage the mantelpiece had been decorated by many paintings, drawings and sculptures he and Leia had made at various ages. His dad particularly liked the portrait he'd made of him out of noodles when he'd been five.

The teacher, Miss Quis, who usually taught them about Sith artefacts and legends, wheeled in a cartful of cream-coloured blocks of clay before distributing them with tools and instructions. The theme of the art project was to create something that celebrated the power of the empire.

Instantly, he knew what Vader would love to receive.

Working the clay with wet fingers, and a brow furrowed in concentration, he began to construct his masterpiece. The other children around him were also deeply involved in their work, and he glanced about to see all sorts of clay models coming to life.

"Who are you celebrating in the empire today Luke?" Miss Quis asked as she walked around the classroom, checking on everyone's progress.

"The Emperor."

"A very good choice," she praised him, pleased he was getting into the spirit of the lesson. Little did she know the real reason why he was creating a miniature of the horrible wrinkled old man.

"And what are you making, Jinn?" she asked the Duros boy next to him.

"A stormtrooper helmet miss."

Enjoying himself immensely for the first time at the academy, Luke couldn't wait to decorate the sculpture. He had plans for some dark black paint and perhaps some purple and blue glitter to decorate the Emperor's cloak. Though Luke disliked the ruler of the galaxy immensely, it was clear Vader held him in high esteem, and so hopefully he would love the gift. Maybe he could keep it on his desk while he worked.

Later that night, after speaking to mom with Leia and seeing baby Junie again, he lay in bed in his dormitory. None of the boys had bothered him after the incident at lunch. Perhaps just that small event had been enough to keep them off his back.

When it was lights out, he snuggled down in the blankets and reflected the events of the day. It was months until the Life Day holidays, but really, that was all he had to look forward to now. That was when he'd finally see mom and meet his new sibling. Despite his victory dealing with the bully, Luke felt sad. When they'd first arrived, Leia had been going around telling everybody that their father, the Jedi, would be rescuing them, but he still hadn't appeared, and it had been weeks now.

Maybe he was recovering from his injuries, or maybe something terrible had happened to him. Closing his eyes, he stretched out to their Force bond. As expected, it was dim and broken. His dad was too far away to reach. Blinking back a few tears at how much he wanted to see his father, he pressed his face into the pillow and eventually drifted off into sad dreams, filled with longing.