For Cal

[hisfathersimage]

It was two months after Endor.

A perfectly normal (for him) night's sleep was interrupted. It was like a mental hiccup, or a system reboot. He wasn't aware of anything and then-

The bond snapped into place before he gained awareness. It was old and young and familiar, a previously cautious candlelight that felt closer to a hearthfire now, tempered and warming and clear. The memories rushed back as he woke, sitting up with a choked gasp and a flare of Force awareness and anxiety bright enough that he felt Leia awaken on the otherside of the system with it.

He couldn't explain to her. To anyone. All he could do was throw on clothes as he went, grabbing the bare necessities and choking out something about 'Jedi business, another Jedi, I can feel him' before he was loading up R2 and the X-Wing.

Outer Rim.

He went to Botajef. Intersection of major hyperspace lanes. Near Dathomir, near Yavin, it felt significant and right.

And once he was there, he set himself outside of the main city and he reached out, along the bond and just in general, because he knows the bond is good, but at the same time, he isn't confident about it.

Cal Kestis. I'm here. I know you.

Comments

[bunchofscrewups]

The heat of the water rushing over his skin is heavenly, and he closes his eyes with a content sigh. Yeah, they're definitely staying here for a good long while. It's been far too long since he had a shower like this.


When Luke mentions Han, it conjures a few more vague memories. They never really talked much in Duplicity, but knowing he mattered to Luke, he'd made some effort to know what he looked like.

He can't quite remember now. He just knows they at least had a brief conversation about something or other.

He turns as asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Something to think about."

But not now, more than they already have. Today is purely for enjoying each other's company, as much as they can.

[hisfathersimage]

The Han in Duplicity was one that Luke could barely see his friend in. He was young and obsessed with someone Luke could barely stand and it had been so awkward, even if he loved the man that one would become.

Luke lathers up the soap a little before starting to run his hands over Cal's back. It's to wash, and to learn, and enjoy all at once. "You've got new scars. I wish I'd been there for them." He traces an old, but unfamiliar one.

[bunchofscrewups]

Naturally, his back is a place he's not particularly familiar with how it looks. There are mirrors, but he doesn't always have access to one and, when he does, he doesn't care to study his back to closely. So he doesn't think that Luke's doing anything but washing it, really, until he speaks.

"Oh, yeah." Of course there would be plenty of them. "I'd offer to tell you, but I don't think I remember most of them."

He's been hurt so many times, he really only remembers the very bad ones.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke understands the feeling. For the first year in Duplicity, he had avoided looking at his still healing scars. It's been odd, waking up and finding them raw and pinked again, only two months into healing, not two years.

"Yeah. I know what you mean with that. There's a point where anything that didn't need a med-droid becomes forgettable." He still presses a kiss to either end of this scar, then digs his thumbs into either side of Cal's spine to work on the knots there.

[bunchofscrewups]

The kisses get an involuntary shiver, but not a bad one, and he smiles a little to himself.

"Yeah, exactly."

After so many years being alone so often, he hasn't really had anyone pay attention to knots or tension, which means there's quite a lot of it. Which means that when Luke digs in, even though Cal's used to pain, it's enough for him to involuntarily hiss in response, though he keeps it quiet. He doesn't want to discourage it, because he knows very well he needs it.

Although Luke probably also knows he needs it.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke shushes Cal gently. He knows it hurts, but Cal needs it. He's not trying for anything complex, just a little nudging at the worst bits along Cal's spine. Thumbs sliding up, down, pausing to push in a tender spot and kissing it in apology as he moves on again.

"I'm going to make sure you look after yourself from now on. I can only imagine the trouble you got into without me."

[bunchofscrewups]

Hardly the worst pain he's felt, and with the first twinge out of the way, the rest is easier to deal with. Instead, there's just a pleased hum at the kiss, and a fond smile at the reassurances. Of course, Luke wouldn't have changed much, but it makes him feel oddly young.

"Oh, the Empire was paying a lot for my head for a few years."

[hisfathersimage]

"I bet they were." The bounties could get slightly ridiculous once there was a suspicion of a Force user, or you made enough things explode.

Cal might be older than Luke now, but for two years, he was Luke's junior and a few hours together was hardly enough to change that attitude. A few months might not do it.

Luke presses another kiss to a tender spot as he lets it go. "Did you break the hundred thousand credit barrier?"

[bunchofscrewups]

He chuckles quietly.

"Oh, yeah. Easy."

The longer he, a Jedi, escaped them, the more they were willing to pay both to catch him but also to keep quiet about who he really was. Things eventually got to a point where they weren't willing to give away that there were still Jedi around at all.

[hisfathersimage]

And then some idiot with a lightsaber turned up and became a public face of the Rebellion. Another kiss gets pressed to Cal's shoulder, his spine, absent minded affection. "Leia's hit ten million after Yavin. Highest Imperial bounty at the time."

[bunchofscrewups]

"Oh, wow. I was never close to that."

Or, well, maybe that depends how you look at it. He definitely reached several hundred thousand credits. Honestly, he can't quite remember. Especially not with Luke kissing him all over like that.

[hisfathersimage]

"Me either." And Luke had hit pretty high up on the bounty list.

He slides his arms around Cal's waist, pressing up against his back to kiss the back of his neck. "I wish I'd remembered sooner. Imagine the bounty we could've racked up together."

[bunchofscrewups]

With a pleased hum, he leans back into Luke, letting his eyes fall shut. Too loud laster could disturb the peace, he thinks, so his is quiet, but he couldn't not. The two of them tearing through the Empire's outposts together, disrupting their operations everywhere they went.

"And it wouldn't make a difference at all. No one could stop us."

He believes that wholeheartedly.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke hums and presses his mouth to Cal's shoulder, not much a kiss as just open mouth resting. Things unfolded how they had to, for better or worse. The cancer of Palpatine's presence could start to be excised from the galaxy now.

"Still. Hell of a number to think about."

[bunchofscrewups]

Absentmindedly, his hand reaches up to find the back of Luke's neck and give it a gentle stroke.

"Yeah. I can't really imagine it. But, I mean, I usually barely have enough to get around."

Which is just about how it's always been. He's pretty content that way, because it's still more than he had on Bracca. Freedom is worth everything.

[hisfathersimage]

Luke has spent most of his adult life swinging between having everything provided by the rebellion and completely looking after himself. Either way, he hasn't had a legitimate job or pay a day in his life.

"Hand and I once raised enough money for a job we had to pull by literally transporting nerfs. It was sort of ridiculous. Not least of all because a YT-1300 isn't made for that."

[bunchofscrewups]

"Nerfs? How'd you pull that off with that ship?"

Deciding that he's sick of not having Luke in front of him, he decides to slowly turn around. As soon as they're face to face, he brushes his hands over Luke's shoulders and down his chest, reacquaintancing himself with how he looks and feels.

[hisfathersimage]

"I have no idea, really. Bribery was involved, of the nerfs." He watches Cal move, smiles at him when they're face to face again.

There's differences. Two years of softer living but actual Jedi training gone. Scars less healed, untreated by Obi-Wan this time around.

He takes the chance to do the same. "It's going to take a while to relearn all of you," he murmurs.

[bunchofscrewups]

It's been long enough that he doesn't really notice those changes, though he'd not be so pleased about it if he knew. As is, he feels content enough that Luke's body isn't completely foreign when he'd been so worried this would be too strange.

"Good thing we have time," he says with a gentle smile, settling his hands on Luke's hips.

[hisfathersimage]

Cal feels the same. Not physically, but in the Force and Luke's come to realise a lot of how he thinks of people is by that sense.

He ducks his head to kiss and mouth a collarbone, from the centre out to the point of Cal's shoulder. "Lots of time," he agrees.

[bunchofscrewups]

His thoughts drift, for the n-th time, to how strange it is to have all these years behind him that now seem almost like they weren't real. Even though they must be, because he feels them in the weariness in his body, if nothing else.

Weariness that Luke is at least expertly soothing, bit by bit.

He shakes his head a little, and reaches for the shampoo.

"Do you think the galaxy will blow up if we try to take a little vacation?" he asks, only partly joking, as he pours shampoo into one of his hands.

[hisfathersimage]

"I give it fifty fifty," Luke murmurs. Which is also only half a joke. "Two Jedi, I assume the Force will call us in before it reaches that stage."

A vacation. Is a vacation just when you only do light, saving small planet work? They can probably manage that.

[bunchofscrewups]

He rubs the shampoo between his hands for a second, then buries his fingers in Luke's hair. It's a good excuse to give him a bit of a massage, so Cal digs his fingers gently into the nape of his neck, rubbing in small circles.

"Then I think we should take a vacation."

[hisfathersimage]

Luke groans and sways into Cal's grip, eyes closing.

"Yeah. 'Sa good idea." They can go somewhere with minimal shooting. Nice amounts of sun and rain. No Imperial garrison.

[bunchofscrewups]

His lips spread in a wide smile at the obvious bliss, and keeps going. If it'll make Luke melt against him like that, he could possibly do this forever.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to go?"