desolate.

11. torn sides.

Time had flown. The galaxy was still in turmoil as the chokehold the Empire and Darth Vader had on it grew stronger, and the Rebellion hopped from planet to planet to escape total destruction from the Empire.

Beau Fullilove was still seen trailing behind the Rebellion, following them wherever they went. Leia had offered him a position within the rebellion as an Imperial Expert, but Beau had turned it down, claiming he was still going to leave sometime soon and figure out what to do with his family, which he had also been avoiding the past three years. He was convinced they thought he was dead, as he had received no forms of them trying to communicate or vice versa.

The only thing that Beau claimed held him down to the rebellion was Luke Skywalker. He had been nostalgic for the days when all they had been was Beau operating Fullilove Supply & Co, and Luke was simply the farm boy that passed through that Beau liked to admire. No Jedi, no Force, no blowing up Death Stars.

Beau didn't know what his official relationship standpoint was with Luke anymore. They were far closer than when they lived on Tatooine, but now there was something else there too. It had been there when Beau had kissed him on the Death Star, when they had kissed after they blew it up. And then the multiple kisses in between, when they've been the only ones not doing anything in the name of the Rebellion.

Sometimes he just liked to sit there and stare at Luke, his dirty blonde hair and blue eyes full of hope. He seemed older nowadays, aside from the fact that he has gotten older, but in a sense of what everything he's been through has done for him. His freckles were still scattered across his cheeks, though now Beau had to look harder to see them, where they were clear on Tatooine, on the ice planet Hoth they currently resided, it made it much more difficult to see.

"And you're supposed to grab the thrusters," Luke's voice pulled him back to reality, and Beau blinked, turning to face the blond.

"Huh?"

Luke huffed and reached forward, pushing the thrusters into position. The ship geared into place, rearing alive. After much persuasion to Han, he had allowed Luke and Beau to borrow the Falcon in order to teach Beau how to fly. Beau realized being only on ground action and not in the sky during the fights was lame, and he wanted to learn to fly, so there they were, in the cockpit of the Falcon. "Jeez, Beau, you're really not helping with our case of promising Han the Falcon will stay in good condition."

"Sorry." Beau muttered, shifting in his seat. "I was thinking about something. Um, what are we supposed to do next?"

"Next you have to get the ship off the ground." Luke instructed, sitting back in his seat and turning to Beau.

". . .How do I do that?" Beau asked, glancing at Luke.

Luke sighed lightly. "You really didn't fly at all before? I thought you had a speeder back home."

"A speeder has completely different controls than what the Falcon has. And also, not every ship is the same. I bet your X Wings have different controls and so do the TIEs." Beau countered.

"They're all theoretically the same, they all have the important settings of start, land, hyperspace. It's just some bigger ships have bigger and fancier controls than an X Wing. And it also depends on the type of ship, fighters have different controls than a simple cruising ship." Luke explained.

"This is stupid," Beau huffed in annoyance, throwing his hands up slightly. "I should just give up, I won't ever need flying anyway if I can't afford a ship."

"Beau, c'mon, just try again. I'll explain it slower this time." Luke said, waving his hand across the control beam.

"I don't know how Vi knew so much about ships." Beau shook his head as he glanced at the control panel.