Their Lady Adyé [Star Wars]

Lightsaber Lullaby

Leia was exhausted. But little Ben was very much not interested in letting her sleep.

She and Han had been trading him off for most of the night, one carrying their baby boy while the other tried to get some sleep. But Leia hadn't really slept at all. She was too anxious for her son. It was funny; on the Falcon he slept like, well, a baby. Even their first night here on Naboo, he had slept remarkably well, allowing his sleep-deprived parents some much needed rest.

But last night it was as though he was compensating for sleeping so well the night before by not sleeping at all. He would doze, but only if Han or Leia were carrying and rocking him. As soon as they put him down, even as soon as they sat down, he would wake and start fussing.

Leia was sure he was as miserable in his state of sleep deprivation as she was; his little face was the picture of exhaustion, as though no matter how hard he or his parents were trying, he just could not sleep. Leia sighed, leaving a light kiss against his dark, baby-fine hair, unable to help but smile at the tiny sound he made in his state of fitful drowsing.

Despite the sleep deprivation and resultant frustration, she couldn't imagine loving him more.

Looking up, she resumed watching her brother and his companion as they warmed up for their morning exercises. A shard of petty jealousy went through Leia; both Luke and Athara looked so well rested and awake...Leia just wanted to curl up and sleep for a month. But that wasn't happening just now, so Leia contented herself with watching the two aspiring Jedi Masters cycling through their exercises before indulging in a bout of sparring the way they did most mornings. A wistful thought that perhaps the rhythmic, whirring hum of the lightsabers might finally lull her son off to sleep crossed her mind; a lightsaber lullaby, so to speak.

Leia couldn't help the fascination and admiration that came from watching first Athara then Luke unhooking and activating their lightsabers, beginning to run through their warm-up exercises. Not for the first time she absently wondered if she should reconsider her decision not to receive even some training...there was a certain appeal to the elegant weapons, and she could recognize the value of some of the other skills Luke had offered to teach her. She shook her head as though to clear the notion. She had made her decision, and her responsibilities to the Alliance and the Republic took precedence. Besides, she knew her place was as a leader and a politician, not as a Jedi. It was what she knew and what she was raised to be and she was perfectly satisfied with that. It was her calling.

The gentle hum of the blue-white and green blades added to the quiet sounds of the morning. Leia felt Ben squirm in her arms as Athara's blue lightsabre began whirling and blurring around her. Looking down to her infant son, Leia had to bite back the frustrated groan that somehow both matched and contradicted the affectionate grin that appeared on her face. No longer dozing, though still looking impossibly tired, Ben's large brown eyes were entranced as Luke's green blade joined its blue fellow in a looping warm up. So much for the notion of a lightsaber lullaby...

"Ben wouldn't sleep?" Leia turned at the sound of Padmé's voice, too tired to be startled. She simply nodded. After asking Leia's permission with a glance, something Leia granted without much thought, Padmé fell into step beside the young mother. A sympathetic look came over Padmé's face as she did so, her warm eyes smiling a little in recognition of the matching expressions of exhaustion on her daughter and grandson's faces. The older woman peered at the little boy's face, the sympathy for his mother giving way to pure affection. Leia couldn't help the way her own lips curled at the obvious adoration in her mother's eyes.

Luke thought Leia was having a hard time accepting Padmé as her mother, but Leia knew it was far more complicated than that. Given his perceptiveness on emotional matters, she was actually a little surprised Luke hadn't quite picked up on that fact yet.