Cruelty
of the Gods, part VI
AFTER THE PARTY
Wedge blinked slowly as he awoke, smiling at the
still-sleeping form of his lover. Luke
was lying on his side, silky hair spilling across his forehead, making him look
the part of a farmboy again, not a tormented Jedi. Wedge wondered if he could push the hair out of the way without
waking Luke, and decided to try.
Luke opened his eyes halfway, blinked sleepily at Wedge, and
closed his eyes again. Wedge was
delighted. Usually the waking order was
the other way around, and Luke was fond of morning sex. Wedge couldn't count the number of times
he'd been awakened by an already alert and horny Luke. Turnabout is fair play, he
decided.
He shook Luke gently.
"Wake up," he murmured. "Wakey
wakey, sleepyhead."
Luke rolled over and mumbled something. Wedge thought for a moment and decided to
get creative.
Shaking someone to wake him up was so rude, he reasoned,
that there must be a better way. He
leaned forward slightly and let his lips brush Luke's, as gently as he could
manage. Then a little harder. He gently nibbled on Luke's bottom lip, and
got so involved he didn't notice Luke wake up until a hand snaked around to
hold the back of his head.
"Nice way to wake a guy up," Luke murmured when Wedge released
his lips.
Wedge grinned.
"Today's a day off," he said, "so we get the whole day to ourselves."
Luke's eyes lit up.
"We haven't had a day like that in ages," he said. "Though, if we're going to be spending all
day doing what I hope we'll be doing, then I want some breakfast first. We're both going to need the energy."
Wedge laughed.
"Whiny farmboy who always thinks with his stomach," he teased.
"Impatient flyboy who always thinks with his blaster," Luke
replied. "And I'm not talking about the
metal one."
Wedge grinned.
"Touché. Let's go get something
to eat."
They got out of bed, and started getting dressed. Wedge had his back turned to Luke, pulling
on his shirt, when he heard a strangled croak behind him.
He turned swiftly.
Luke was leaning hard against the wall of the little hut the Ewoks had
given them. He was shaking noticeably,
and he seemed to be having trouble breathing.
His eyes were unfocused, and sweat was popping out all over his body.
"Luke! Luke, are you
okay?" Wedge grabbed Luke's still-bare
shoulder. "Luke?"
After a few seconds, the tremors subsided and Luke's eyes
came back into focus.
"Luke, are you alright?" Wedge asked again.
Luke swallowed hard, then said, "Yeah, I'm fine. It was nothing."
Wedge raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing? Are you sure?"
Luke nodded. "It was
only for a second. I got over it."
"What was it?"
"I don't know. Just… nothing."
An unpleasant thought struck Wedge. "Could it have anything to do with…you know…
yesterday?"
Luke frowned. "I… I
just don't know." There seemed to be an
edge of fear in his voice, the kind of fear that creeps in and stays. "Wedge, honestly, it was nothing. Just a little double vision for a
second. I'm fine."
Wedge gave him 'the look.'
"Luke, that was not just a little double vision for a second. You were barely staying on your feet and you
know it."
Luke raised his eyebrows.
"So, what are you saying?"
Wedge grimaced.
"Much as I hate the concept, and I hate doing this to you, we're putting
our plans for the day on hold in favor of a visit to Too-Onebee for you."
Luke made a face.
"Wedge, you do that and Too-Onebee will have me in bacta for a month,
whether I need it or not."
"And maybe you will need that bacta. Luke, seriously, I think you need to go down
for a checkup, at the least."
Luke sighed. "Fine,
fine. Lead me to the torture chamber."
***
"Sir, it's a good think you came to me when you did,"
Too-Onebee said later, after running Luke through a comprehensive medical
test. "Your system is showing signs of
extensive damage caused by exposure to high levels of electricity."
Luke frowned, biting his lip as Too-Onebee continued, "The
full treatment will take a week, and I think I might keep you in here a little
longer than that, because your system is showing an extremely high level of
calcification. Had you waited longer
before coming here, the episodes of pain and double vision would become
irreparable, and you'd have to be permanently grounded."
Luke directed a look at Wedge, who frowned. "But, you can cure him, right?" the
Corellian asked anxiously.
"Yes, at this stage, with bacta treatment, the condition is
curable."
"Good." Then he
turned to Luke. "See? I told you it was
a good idea."
Luke's mouth twisted in what would have been a grin, had he
not been facing the idea of a week in the medicenter. "Sure, sure, you're just abandoning me. Go on."
Too-Onebee said, "If you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have
another patient I need to look in on. I
shouldn't be long." And people said
droids had no ideas about discretion.
Wedge wrapped his arms around Luke, pressing his nose
against the soft hair. "Hey, Luke, I'm
not abandoning you. I'll come in every
day. So much you'll tell me to get out
of here."
Luke looked at him, mouth quirking. "You think you can possibly do that? I don't think I could ever get that tired of
your company."
Wedge pressed his lips to Luke's forehead. "You just focus your energy on getting
better, okay?"
Luke nodded. "Will
do. Looks like we'll have to delay our
time-off activities even more."
Wedge nodded, sighing dramatically. "The universe is arrayed against us,
always."
Luke sighed. "It
is."
***
For Wedge, the next week couldn't go by fast enough. Luke was in treatment most of the time,
either under some complex machine that made the Corellian very nervous or
floating in the bacta tank.
Finally, six days later, Too-Onebee contacted him.
"Sir, Commander Skywalker is fit to receive visitors. He can't leave the medicenter yet, but you
can come see him. He's very eager to
see you."
***
Luke was sitting up on the medicenter bed, looking
bored. Wedge grinned at him. "Good to see you back in the land of the
living."
Luke said, "It's good to be back. I was starting to think I'd turned into bacta, I'd been in there
so long."
Wedge sat down on the bed, close to Luke, and kissed the
Jedi softly. "I love you, Luke," he
said softly.
"I love you too, Wedge.
Oh, by the way, there's something else I need to tell you about," Luke
said. "You know how I told you, before
the battle, about my father?"
Wedge nodded.
"Well, there's another part to the Skywalker family
revelations. I couldn't tell you
before, but, well," Luke grinned, "Leia's my sister."
"Leia as in the Princess Leia?"
"Same one."
Wedge raised an eyebrow.
"You've got one messed-up family, Skywalker."
Luke laughed. "Don't
I know it. Anyway, I wanted to tell her
first. Besides, with the other half of
that… I figured there was a possibility she wouldn't want anyone to know, since
she's been in leadership so long."
Wedge nodded. "Yes,
I can see why. It's going to be bad
enough if HC ever finds out about you, and you're only a Commander."
Luke shrugged. "Yes,
well. Anyway, Leia and I talked it
over, and we decided that we'd be open about being siblings, but keep the rest
of it quiet."
"Sounds like a good plan.
How quiet is quiet?"
"You, Han Solo, me and Leia."
"Pretty quiet. Why
does Solo get in on the secret?"
"He and Leia are pretty serious about each other, it seems."
"So he gets to know for the same reason I get to."
"Exactly."
There was a short silence, the two of them just sitting
together, enjoying each other's presence.
"There's, um, something I've been meaning to talk to you
about," Wedge said haltingly, almost nervously.
"Yes?"
"Well, on Corellia, men in a relationship like ours,
sometimes go a step further, and, um, have a ceremony…"
"A bonding ceremony?" Luke asked, smiling slightly.
Wedge nodded.
"Are you telling me you want us to have one?" Luke asked,
his smile growing broader.
Wedge nodded again.
Luke's smile was
wide, dazzling. He clasped Wedge's
right hand in his left, then snaked his right hand around the back of Wedge's
head and kissed him, full and hard and long.
"Was that answer enough?" he asked softly when he released
Wedge's lips.
Wedge could only nod.
