NOTE: "Dad Vader & Son" series is 7 stories as of 11/21: The Perfect Gift, Itty-Bitty Baby, Daddy Dinner Duty, Mustafar: We Meet Again, Adventures in Glamping, White Legs, and Good Buddy. (Suitless Vader - limbs lost, but not burned)

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"Is your thumb in your mouth?"

Luke's thumb was pulled from his mouth with a sucking sound and he shook his head.

"Was your thumb in your mouth when I asked that question?"

The boy stared at him blankly.

"You are too old to suck your thumb." He received no response. "How old are you? Tell me the number."

"Niney-nine one hun'wed!" Luke announced proudly.

"You are not one hundred. Tell me truthfully: how old are you?"

With a scowl on his little mouth, Luke held up three fingers, then four.

"How old is that?"

"Fouw!"

"That is almost correct. You are three now but will be four one day soon, and four is too old to be sucking your thumb. That is for babies. You are almost an adult."

"No I not!" The boy folded his arms.

"Very well, you are still a child. But not a baby. Now finish your meal."

Luke pushed the plate away. "I want cake."

"What do you know of cake?" he asked sternly. "When I was your age, we had no cake."

"I sowwy." Luke frowned. "You have cake now."

"I don't want—"

"You take my cake," his son declared. "Don' be sad."

"I am not sad. But I will be sad if you don't finish your meal. Food is precious and not always available. The day may come when you wish you had this meal."

"'Kay." Luke nodded. "I save it."

"No, you can't…." Darth Vader sighed. "You cannot save it. It will go bad."

"Bad?" Luke looked at his plate, then back at his father. "Why it bad?"

"It's not bad now. Now it's good. That's why you must eat it now. Before it has a chance to go bad."

Luke scratched his head and appeared to think about this problem for several long moments. "What it bad in tummy?"

"If you eat it now, it won't go bad in your tummy. It will… it will come out before it goes bad."

Tiny pink lips parted. "How?"

Already he regretted bringing up the subject. "Never mind. Just eat."

Luke twisted and wrapped his arms around the back of the chair as he slid onto the floor. Then he crawled under the table. Vader felt the short arms curl around his boots. Luke said something that he couldn't understand.

"Speak clearly, child. And come out from there."

With a loud, draw-out moan, Luke scooted partly to the side, still clinging to one boot. "Wha's you name?"

"You know my name. You tell me."

"Daddy!"

"That is correct, but only you may call me Daddy. What does everyone else call me?"

"Wight Away Wo'd Waduh!"

What a clever child he had. He smiled to himself. "That is what they say. However, my name is Darth Vader."

"'Kay."

Luke scooted back under Vader's chair and tried to climb up his cape. The chain tugged uncomfortably around his neck. "Stop that. Come out from there and get back in your chair."

By the time the first half of the command was completed, the boy had a pout on his mouth. He put both hands on Vader's knee and started to climb. Resigned, Vader picked up his son and placed him on his lap.

He gestured with his hand and Luke's abandoned plate slid in front of them. Luke gave him a suspicious look. "You will eat this, young one."

"No."

"You must."

"Why?"

"Because I said so." There was no argument to be made to that statement as his son should already know.

"Why?"

"You don't need a reason. I told you to eat it."

Luke folded his arms and pressed his lips closed tightly. "Bad weason."

Vader used the Force to elevate a spoonful of vegetables. The spoon moved from side to side, to and fro. "Here comes the TIE fighter, looking for a place to land. Oh, no, the hangar is closed. What will the pilot do?"

Luke giggled. "He'p pilot!" He opened his mouth and the vegetables zoomed in.

"Good," Vader praised.

Luke opened his mouth again and let the vegetables fall out onto his clothes. "Oh-oh," Luke crowed happily. "It cwashed!"

"It did. Now the pilot is dead."

Luke turned and gave him a look of horror, looked at the vegetables, back at him again, and then burst into tears.

Panic rose inside him. He could command troops to their deaths, but this was too much. "Look! The pilot is still alive! He's crawling out of the wreckage." He Forced a bean to move from Luke's tunic onto the table. "But he needs medical help. You have the Force, you can heal him."

The tears faltered. Luke touched the bean and pushed it a few times. "Wake up!"

"You must chew him!" Vader instructed. "Only then will he survive."

Luke picked up the bean between thumb and forefinger and studied it before putting it in his mouth and chomping down on it. His face pulled into a frown.

"Don't spit it out," Vader said quickly. "You must close your eyes. Now swallow it."

As the boy did as he was told, Vader levitated another bean from the plate and let it hover in front of Luke. "Open your eyes. You did it. See?"

Luke looked at the bean, then craned his neck around and looked at him, squinting. He pushed himself down from Vader's lap. "You make me eat bean," he declared indignantly before marching off.

The most willful and amazing child ever born! Vader tried unsuccessfully to hold back a laugh. If he was so clever now, what would Luke be like in ten years?

A shiver of dread went through him. A teenager. Teenager. Wanting his own speeder, behaving recklessly, falling in with bad companions, perhaps even drinking and— dating and— who knew what else!

He needed to check the sacred Sith texts. Maybe there was an enchantment that would keep Luke as his precious little boy forever.

"Daaaaaaaady!"

Only one person in the galaxy could make him hurry to his side with one word. Not even the Emperor engendered such obedience.

"Coming, Son."

Servitude had never felt so good.

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