Charting the Stars - Dinluke AU

Chapter Three: Finding Refuge

Warnings: Implied child abuse, manipulation of a person by their parent, the comedown from a panic attack is briefly described in the beginning, canon-typical violence.

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Luke's head was pounding. Not only had he felt Vader's overwhelming presence pressing down on his consciousness, he had actually heard his voice. It echoed in his head even now.

"Son, I suggest you return now or I will be forced to show you just how dangerous this galaxy can be."

He did his best to push Vader from his mind, but it was like trying to move a mountain. He knew he needed to protect the child though, so instead of fighting, he pushed other new memories to the front of his thoughts, which turned out to be a different sort of mistake.

"Very well, I will leave you with that Mandalorian's skull as a reminder of what happens when you choose to be disobedient."

Once they jumped into hyperspace, Luke was left cold and shaking with the distinct feeling that Vader had let them go intentionally.

The Mandalorian stayed by his side as he slowly came back to himself, the cold oppressiveness seeping out the farther away from Arvala-7 they got. Eventually, he realized that his back was starting to hurt from being bent over for so long and started to straighten out by sitting up. The hand on his back fell as Luke looked around.

Hyperspace was beautiful, but he was finding it hard to be excited with how tired he was.

"You should get some rest. There's a bunk in the hold, if you can stand I'll show you."

Luke shook his head slowly, careful of his migraine, "You need rest too. You haven't slept in days."

"Neither have you," the Mandalorian reminded him. "I'll sleep later. I don't think I could if I wanted to right now."

Luke dug into that little bit of the man he could feel; the parts that slipped through the chinks of his armor. He was telling the truth. "Okay."

He allowed himself to be guided back down the ladder to a small door that opened when the Mandalorian pressed a button, revealing a small bunk. "Sonic is there," he pointed to another door. "I'll leave you alone in case you want to use it. Come get me when you wake up." With that, he left back up the ladder and Luke was alone.

It was almost worse like this, but then he laid down on the most uncomfortable bed ever and realized he could smell the Mandalorian on the sheets. He decided to pretend that they were back at Luke's home and it was that first night where he asked the other man a thousand questions and got a thousand succinct and mildly reluctant answers.

Luke hoped he wouldn't mind him sleeping in these dirty clothes, but if the sheets smelled the way they did, it would probably be hypocritical if he did. It wasn't as bad as the cape was when he'd first given it to Luke, though that was expected since he had been walking around sweating in the hot sun. The sheets smelled like leather and something burnt. It lulled him to sleep easily enough alongside the hum of the ship.

-

Din had no idea what the hell just happened. At first, he thought the Empire was there for him, that they had heard about him killing off all the other bounty hunters that had been sent for the kid. It was clear now though, that they were there for Luke. They had called him a fugitive, but he knew that the man had never left his apartment.

Luke's father had been on that ship and was apparently important enough to send an entire Star Destroyer after one person who hadn't even left the system yet. Luke claimed that he knew nothing about it and Din was inclined to believe him, but his reaction to seeing the ship was imprinted in his mind.