Luke and Leia - Rebels [2]

16: It Begins

The hustle and bustle of the hall connected to his quarters woke Luke up early, much to his chagrin. He sighed and sat up, rubbing his eyes and slapping his hand haphazardly against the light switch. The quarters illuminated in a way that immediately made him groan in discontent. Next to the bed Artoo powered up at the noise, swiveling his head to face Luke and warbling a question.

"Yeah Artoo, I'm fine. Just tired." The blonde-haired man stood up and stretched, still getting used to the feeling of being at least slightly cold all of the time. Tatooine had the exact opposite problem and Luke had never been to an ice planet for a long period of time before, so his body was undergoing some struggles as it continued to try to keep him warm. He envied Leia in that she had already dealt with this struggle before when she was here last; apparently her hands and feet had turned blue for a day or two as her body adjusted her blood flow to regulate more frequently, because on Tatooine there was heat all around so the bodies of the inhabitants had adapted to focusing on keeping themselves cool instead of warm. But even after several weeks of being on Hoth, Luke's body just refused to adapt quickly.

Luke looked down at his hands and feet and noticed a slight blueish tinge. He rolled his eyes and shook his hands out before putting on yet another layer of long underwear, then his pants, then three layers of socks, then two thermal shirts, then his jacket. The whole process took probably twenty minutes, but by the time he was done he definitely felt a bit better.

"Come on, Artoo." Luke put on his gloves, grabbed his hat and belt, and started out the door with the astromech in tow. "Do you know where Threepio is?"

Artoo responded that the protocol droid was probably already in the command center. Luke was headed that way anyways to meet up with the morning patrol groups, remembering that Han was also going out on this patrol. The former smuggler and Leia had arrived on the planet a week or two ago, and they had settled in nicely much to Luke's pleasant surprise. Leia had found her voice as a commander, being unsettlingly good at ordering people around. But Luke already knew she had that skill; he'd been ordered around by her his entire life.

Luke chuckled to himself at that, shimmying through a tight hall that was densely packed with people moving to their own destinations with focused precision. Han was another matter, telling the twins that he was leaving soon but staying for two weeks without bringing the topic up again. Luke wondered briefly if he had changed his mind, but immediately shook the thought away. If he'd truly decided to stay he'd tell them. Then again, he wasn't a very decisive man.

The command center was no different than the hallway Luke had just left in terms of activity levels; his ears were immediately bombarded with a loud volume of interweaving conversations and commands as he entered. Since everyone was wearing roughly the same outfit it was hard to tell people apart, but he managed to catch Han by the navy jacket he was wearing instead of the white or gray most others were. Han also saw him, probably because Luke didn't have his hat on, and waved him over. Luke made his way over to his friend, giving him a warm smile as a greeting. "Morning."

"Morning." Han repeated in return, looking around him. "And a busy one at that."

"I thought everyone would be focusing on prepping the snow speeders for the cold." Luke rubbed his arms absentmindedly, making Han chuckle. He glared at him. "What?"

"I bet you're having a great time in the cold. The morning patrols are the worst ones, too."

Luke scowled. "I'm doing fine, thank you very much." He replied adamantly, resisting the urge to shiver. Han just smiled and continued to look around.

"Where's your sister?"

"I don't know, I'm not her babysitter."

"Maybe you should be."