The Night (The Night has a Thousand Eyes Remix)

Remix Author: Angel

Original Story: The Night by xehra

Summary: Luke remembers a different side of his aunt.

Rating: PG

Fandom: Star Wars: Original Trilogy

Han woke suddenly, feeling something amiss. The room was still dark, the Corellian night outside the window lit only by stars and the distant half-moon.
The other two moons had already set. Leia slept behind him, nestled into his back as she loved to do, the soft swell of her pregnancy warm against him.
But his other mate was no longer in his arms.

Luke was sitting against the headboard, watching the dim shadows the moon called “Brother” cast among the leaves outside. He saw Han was awake and
slid down, covering his mate’s lips with his finger.

“Don’t wake Leia,” he whispered, stroking his sister’s arm that was draped over Han’s stomach.

“What’s up, kid?” Han whispered back, his mouth bare centimeters from Luke’s ear. “Bad dream?”

“Old memory. The first time I ever saw a lightsaber.”

“Day before you met me?” Han asked, flip in his half-asleep state.

“I was ten,” Luke said, as if he hadn’t heard. “Aunt Beru woke me late one night when she locked my door. I can’t sleep with a closed door, never could.”
Han nodded and glanced at the bedroom door, open to invasion by any of their four children.

“So I got up, put my hands on it and wished the lock would open. It did.”

“The Force?”

“I know it was now. So I slipped out and hid in the hall. I heard the door open, and a man came in. He looked nasty. When he saw me, he grinned and started
for me. Aunt Beru shot him. She just shot him, like he was a womprat come to steal some bread.”

“Hey, Luke–“

“But that wasn’t all. She shot the other too, cool and calm as you please. My aunt, who wouldn’t hurt sandspiders, but made me put them outside, killed two men
while I watched.”

Han held him, listening to his ragged breathing and Leia’s soft even breaths. When Luke calmed a little, integrating his memories with what he knew of his aunt, he continued.

“Two more came in. They had the sense to drop behind the furniture. She ran, ducking out the open door, trying to lead them away. Away from me. They shot
and missed. She dove and rolled. I breathed then. I was so scared they would shoot her. Then what? Would they shoot me too? Or take me with them? Sell me
or worse?”

Han could feel the light tremors escaping his mate’s Jedi control. Behind him, Leia stirred as if in a bad dream. Luke soothed her with a light touch. The twins’
closeness and unconscious link still unnerved him, as it had the day they’d accepted his proposal of marriage, each supplying the other with the traditional Corellian
words of a tri-bond.

“Then I saw him. Ben Kenobi. He appeared out of nowhere, his saber blinding us all in the night. He sent the blaster bolts back to the one who shot at Aunt Beru,
then skewered the other. He and my aunt didn’t say anything, just nodded at each other. Then he turned and looked at me. I know he saw me because he smiled.
I could almost hear him say ‘go to bed before she sees.’” The wonder of hearing someone in his head still hadn’t worn off.

“I ran back to bed, and locked the door behind me. I pretended to be asleep when Aunt Beru checked on me, and she never noticed I wasn’t. She stood there a
long time, watching me, and I fell asleep before she left.”  Luke’s face was drawn and his voice was soft. The moon cast a silver streak across his hair and for a
 moment he looked very old and sad.

“Stars, kid, that was something,” Han breathed. He’d had no idea how much Luke missed his family or what the family had gone through hiding the boy.

“Yeah. I was pretty sheltered. I never saw the bodies. Either Beru or Ben moved them before I got up in the morning. Beru never told Uncle Owen either.
But she kept me very close after that. She was always afraid of losing me.”

“I can imagine. You do the same thing, you know. You go and watch the kids sleep.”

“I know. Sleep, my love.” Luke caressed his sister’s arm and kissed his mate gently. They watched the shadows as the larger Hunter moon rose again, in his endless,
jealous pursuit of Brother for the theft of Sister Sea. It would be high tide tonight. Eventually, the dancing shadows lulled Han back to sleep.

Luke whispered softly to his mate, “Leia’s job to carry them, yours to raise them. And mine to watch in the night.”