Summary: Luke accidentally loses something important to him. He panics. Between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. Han is the bro of all bros.

Also, quick side note: To the anonymous guest reviewer from chapter 2 who requested that I change the rating on the story… the answer is no. The rating will remain as is. As you politely pointed out, swearing IS allowed in the K+ rating and whether or not you consider "shit" to be a stronger swear word over another is no concern of mine. Manage your own triggers. I cater to no one.

Please enjoy!

Panic

Luke woke up feeling groggy and sore. The lights to his room were turned off and it was nice and dark. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was on the Millennium Falcon and not on the Rebel base. His head was pounding a little and after a little investigation, he winced after coming in contact with a sizable goose egg on his temple. It hurt but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle. He pushed a blanket off of him and turned the lights to a lower setting and then stood up, making his way to the fresher. He washed up quickly and popped a few painkillers before shrugging into cleaner clothes and grabbing his belt. He needed to find Han and see what was happening. And maybe grab breakfast. It took a few seconds of fumbling to get it on properly and tighten the buckle.

It seemed… lighter than usual.

Luke frowned, pinching his eyes for a moment to rub the sleep out of them before looking down with a yawn.

Then he froze, his blood running cold as he realized what felt off.

His lightsaber was gone.

Luke dropped his hands immediately, patting himself down and searching for the familiar weight anywhere else on his person. Nothing. There was nothing. He spun around in a circle, looking around the small room on the Millenium Falcon that had slowly started to become "his", for any hint of his father's weapon, and tangling his hands in his hair in sheer panic when it didn't immediately reveal itself to him.

He dropped to his knees, searching under the bed and then tore his travel pack from where it was sitting on a nearby chair and pulled everything out in a desperate hurry, searching for it among the contents.

It wasn't there.

No. No no no no.

Where was it?!

That lightsaber was the only thing that he'd ever gotten from either of his parents and he wanted it back.

A strange sort of panic came over him as he tried to remember everything from the previous night. He'd had it with him just yesterday - on a failed mission for the Rebellion. It had been an Imperial moon and they'd had to cut and run after some interference from a dedicated bounty hunter. He and Han had barely escaped with their lives. Luke had gotten hit on the head at some point - the details of which were still sort of fuzzy to him - but he could have sworn that he'd had his weapon with him the whole time.

It had to be here. Somewhere. It was somewhere - misplaced, dropped - but on the Falcon.

Any other option was… inconceivable.

Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough.

That one sentence had given Luke proof that at least one of his parents had wanted him. That someone at some point in time had thought about him and had wanted him to have something important to them. That kriffing lightsaber was the only gift from his father he'd ever get. There would be nothing else. Pulling himself to his feet, Luke ripped the door to his room open and immediately began searching the baseboards in the hallways for any sign of his lightsaber. He opened every door, drawer, nook, and cranny that he could find, creating a disaster in his wake, and there was nothing. He searched the cockpit and belatedly realized that Han had placed the Falcon on an asteroid at some point and that they weren't even moving. Minor details. Luke didn't care. He checked the main room, moving boxes and crates and with some help from the Force, forcibly shifted some of the bolted-down seats enough to peer behind them, leaving them at a strange angle. Han would give him hell from bending the metal but Luke didn't care at all. He even pulled the panels to the smuggler holes up and jumped down into them to search in case it had somehow fallen down there.

Still nothing.

"Damn it," Luke whispered, breathing harshly as he paused for the first time in nearly an hour. Tears began to prick at his eyes from the sheer panic and frustration he felt. He spun around again, wanting it to just reappear before his eyes.

There was no way. He couldn't have lost it. He wouldn't have - but if he had… how could he have been so stupid?

He didn't want to believe it. Hell, he hadn't even realized how much that damn weapon had meant to him until it was suddenly gone. It was the worst pain he'd felt since Owen and Beru and Ben had been killed. Feeling numb with grief and loss, Luke slowly sat down against the wall in the main compartment, surrounded by an absolute disaster of his own making and let the tears he'd been holding in check fall.

Luke had never done much crying. It wasn't his thing - a trait that he'd picked up from Owen, probably. But this... this hurt and it was his fault and it felt like he just kept losing everything that was important to him. Suddenly feeling as angry as he felt defeated, Lukee grabbed the nearest object on the ground and chucked it at the wall where it broke with a loud bang and a shatter.

Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.

It had to be back on that planet somewhere. Abandoned or stolen or retrieved by a kriffing Imperial.

Luke had never felt so stupid or careless in his life.

It didn't take very long after that before Han suddenly emerged from his room, looking scruffy and tired. He froze in something like outrage and shock when he saw the disaster that Luke had made of the Falcon.

"Kid, what in the seven hells did you do to my ship?" he demanded incredulously.

Luke scrubbed his eyes, feeling small and stupid even as the tears kept running. "Han. Han, we have to go back to that planet." he croaked out. "We need to go back -"

"Are you insane? That is a guaranteed death sentence for both of us. Whatever the Rebellion asked you to do is not worth it and I'm sure Threepio will be more than happy to tell you the odds of us making it out of there twice. And that doesn't answer why you ransacked my things!"

Luke shook his head. "It's not for the Rebellion. I don't care about that, the mission was a failure -"

"- then what?"

"I can't find my lightsaber," Luke interrupted desperately, feeling more like a child than he'd felt in years. "I must have - I must have dropped it somewhere and I need to go back and get it. It was my father's, Han - it's all I've got from either of my parents and… and I want it back. I need to go get it back."

"Your lightsaber?" Han repeated in disbelief. "That's what this is about?"

"Yeah," Luke said hoarsely, feeling absolutely miserable. "It's gone and I just… I don't have anything else that was his."

There was a long moment of silence and Han stared at him almost like he was seeing something in him for the first time. Slowly, the irritation faded from his face and he sighed, scrubbing his face for a long moment.

"Hang on," he said before disappearing down the hall and into his bedroom. Luke hadn't actually gone in there earlier - it was off limits and disturbing Han from sleep was a decent way to get shot at. The older man emerged a minute or so later, holding something in hand. Then he came and dropped into a squat right in front of him and offered him his unlit lightsaber.

Luke blinked, staring at it in disbelief and then met Han's eyes. There was a lot of kindness in them, as well as a fair amount of exasperation.

"You kept playing with it last night after hitting your head. I took it so you wouldn't stab yourself."

"...oh." Luke said dumbly. He didn't remember any of that. But it was... it had been here. The whole time. Luke hadn't lost it after all. A wild wave of utter relief flooded through him and he sat up, wiping more tears from his eyes. Slowly, he reached out and took his lightsaber back. The metal was cool and the weight was nice and familiar. Inside, he could feel the kyber crystal humming softly. When he'd first started using it, he hadn't realized that the kyber had a singing voice of its own. The more in tune with the Force he became, the more he'd become aware of it and liked it. Sometimes he thought he could imagine that there was even a faint impression of Anakin hidden somewhere inside the crystal. It was there now. He kept hoping that one day he would see and feel it more clearly.

Luke closed his eyes, dropping his head back against the wall and held the lightsaber close to his chest in a tight grip. "Thank you."

Han patted him on the shoulder and Luke thought, not for the first time, that Han being his friend was one of the best things that had ever happened to him. He was kind of like Biggs, filling in the space of the older brother that Luke had never had and watching his back when there wasn't anyone else to do it. Han might be falling in love with Leia but Luke knew that he had come back to the Rebellion for him. There was something special about that.

"You're going to clean this mess up." Han warned, standing up again.

Luke huffed a laugh, too relieved to care.

"Sure thing."

A/N Gifts from family are weirdly complicated. I almost lost a necklace I received as a gift from my dad the other day and nearly lost my mind. I figured that Luke might understand that and decided to torment him a little. Men might typically respond more stoically to stuff like this than women do but I think it depends on the situation as well and how much what you've lost means to you. Thanks for reading and also, THANK YOU all for your comments and encouragement! I don't always say it but trust me, every review is genuinely appreciated and I love knowing that people enjoy my stories! Thank you again!