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Among the Stars

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Because what if Bail's plan to send Leia to personally recruit Obi-wan Kenobi hadn't failed? What if the twins were reunited early and Kenobi thought, "I'd better explain some things quick, for all our sanities"?

"I can't believe I have a sister!"
Well, actually, he could believe it now. Ben -- er, Obi-wan -- had started off his lessons in using the Force with how to distinguish truths from falsehoods.

It had actually been very entertaining, as the old Jedi had framed it as a game of Two Truths and a Lie. Luke still didn't know what he was doing, and more than half the time the Force was little more than a gust of warm air, just out of his reach. Nevertheless, after an hour of the exercise, Luke could distinguish the wobbly tilt of a lie and the musical hum of a truth with reasonable accuracy.
Which was how he found out that (1) apparently his father had jumped out of a moving speeder when he was his age because he'd spotted a bounty hunter, (2) Obi-wan had been in more bar fights than he could actually count and only six of them had involved him actually drinking anything, and (3) he had a twin sister.

Luke could sort of understand why they'd been separated, if he turned his head and squinted. Apparently Jedi were forbidden to love and marry at all -- Yeah, let's avoid that particular tradition, a rebellious part of him whispered -- which would make the children of a Jedi stick out like sore thumbs. And considering how hard the Empire worked to wipe out the Jedi, two in one place would've been too tempting a target.
At the same time, however, he couldn't help feel the faintest strains of bitterness that his sister had been given parents that clearly adored her and a childhood where she was never truly in want of anything, while he and his aunt and uncle had barely scraped by.
(He knew Owen had half starved himself the year Jabba's men stole the harvest. He still pretended not to notice for his uncle's sake.)

"It is a bit preposterous, isn't it?" Leia remarked, and her hands stilled on the brush before she laid it aside. "I'd figured my birth parents had fought in the Clone wars in some capacity or other, since tabloids used to call me the War Orphan Princess, but I certainly didn't expect my first father to have been a Jedi!"

Luke chuckled and tugged at the collar of the expensive tunic they'd given him. "I didn't either. I thought he was just a pilot!" His face fell. "Wish we could've known him."

Leia paused a moment and ran a finger over her mother's necklace as she thought. Then she stood and moved to adjust Luke's collar. "Well maybe you should ask Papa about him sometime," she suggested, "He was a senator on Corus- I mean, Imperial Center for most of the Clone Wars. He probably met a lot of..." she lowered her voice, "..Jedi."

Luke brightened visibly at the suggestion, then wilted a little. "Oh. Um. L-leia?" he stumbled over her name, still wondering how he'd ended up related to royalty, "Er...what do I call him anyway? Senator? Viceroy? We don't really have people like that on Tatooine. Not ones you'd want to meet anyway."

Leia winced at that. She had a pretty good idea of what kind of life her newfound brother and aunt and uncle had led on that desert world, and it baffled her that Owen Lars had been so reluctant to leave. Even now she could tell that Luke was uncomfortable in the silks they'd dressed him in as compared to the homespun monstrosity she'd seen him in first.

"How about," Leia said softly, placing a tentative hand against Luke's cheek, "You just call him Uncle Bail? I understand that it would be...awkward to try to start referring to them the way I do. But we're all still family of one kind or another, right?"

A smile tugged at Luke's lips and he nodded slowly. "Huh. You get a new aunt and uncle the same day I do. How about that?"

Returning his smile, Leia laced her fingers through his. "Come on, little brother. Let's go make sure your Corellian friend hasn't utterly depleted the bar."

"Well he's not really my friend yet," Luke said sheepishly, "I've known him for all of three days, one more than you."

"Yet, huh? So you're going to befriend him eventually whether he likes it or not?" Leia teased as they walked.

"Pretty much." Luke nodded, then stopped as what she'd said earlier hit him. "Hey wait a minute! Who said I'm the younger twin?! How do you know you're not the youngest?!"
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KaelinaLuvsLomaris's avatar
I love Leia's sleeves! :D And the way you have all the creases in her dress is lovely.
And Luke's sheepish/embarrassed expression is perfect. He looks so uncomfortable in those clothes, but also rather dashing. :)