Simply Irresistible
2003 Angel
This originally appeared in Con*Stricted by Plot 3.
This is NC-17, and includes adultry and incest.
It’s time for the truth now. Luke’s been gone long enough that nothing
a drunken old
coot like me can say will tarnish his Jedi legend. Leia’s gone too,
these ten years, so
I don’t have to break her heart with this either. Jacen? Well,
Jace is grown and
married with kids of his own. He’ll be mad, sure, but no damage there.
He’s been
pissed at me for thirty years over this story. Ever since... No, better
to tell it from
the start. Some secrets are just too heavy to carry forever.
“I’m gettin’ too old for this!” I insisted as Eminb dropped
away. For fifteen years
we’d been hunting imperials, stabilizing Leia’s Republic and generally cleaning
up
Palpatine’s great flamin’ mess.
Corellians are long-lived, but I was feeling every one
of my fifty-one years that day.
All I wanted to do, after having slogged through jungle and under mountain
to pull my
Jedi bond-brother’s afterburners out of the fireball yet again, was go home
to the wife
and kids and collapse.
I made the jump and set the autopilot. Kaf and kippa
stew were calling me from the
forward lounge.
I found Luke meditating, his injuries untreated, blood
and dirt not even washed off his
face. Poor kid, he’d had a rough time down on Eminb. A Force
cult had set him up as
a priest. What they didn’t tell him was that his main religious duty
was going to be laying
still while they cut him to ribbons with a stone knife. But even beyond
that, something
really bad had happened in the sacrifice place. Something he wouldn’t
talk about.
The smell of food brought him up. He blinked, so
slowly, and stood up. When he
brushed the hair out of his eyes, his fingers found the cut.
“Han?” he said staring at the blood, “I’m hungry.”
“I’ll bet. Not like you’ve had anything but a nutribar
in the last three days. You have
time for a quick shower before this is ready. Go get the blood off.”
“Yes. Blood.” Stars, I didn’t like the blurry
look in his eyes or the faint, detached voice, like
words weren’t meaning what he thought they should. It had to be the
ritual smoke. It had been
pretty thick in the Sacrifice Cave, and Luke had breathed an awful lot before
I got to him. Stuff
had made me light headed, even the little I’d gotten.
The sluggish way he moved, so different than his normal
controlled speed, didn’t help my worry.
But he got himself clean, and ate all right. Not much had ever daunted
his appetite.
I made him sit and let me go over him with a medkit. He
was almost as good a patient as Jacen.
Jaina, like her mother, would have squirmed and insisted it was nothing.
I irrigated and synthefleshed
him back into some semblance of human, and gave him some painkiller.
He hadn’t complained, but
he was a mess. Lots of gashes, and he’d actually lost a strip of skin
three fingers wide off his left arm.
He wanted to meditate, so I went to bed. I ached from all the
excitement, and wished for the big
spa bath back home, nice and hot, with strong massage jets and a gorgeous
wife. Getting old, Solo,
and going real soft.
I woke up a couple hours later when Luke joined me.
Yeah, sure, we’d slept close before. An Alliance emergency
shelter ain’t exactly roomy. But this
was all wrong. There was the guest cabin, with all his stuff, and Chewie’s
cabin, but he’d come to mine.
And there, in the dark, he kissed me.
It was a serious kiss, not the light, customary thing he’d pressed
to my cheek at the wedding, or the
affectionate pecks he gave the kids. I’m no poet, but he tasted like
darkness and danger and betrayal
and pain all wrapped up in the ghost-taste of the damned smoke.
“Help me,” he whispered. “The Dark. It wants
me. It’s dragging me back.”
I never could refuse a distress call from him. Not
from the day we met. Just like when Jaina had
been scared of womprats in her closet, I took him in my arms. I held him,
let him hear my heartbeat,
stroked his hair and whispered soothing nonsense until he fell asleep.
I forgot that I was dealing with a grown man: a man with
a man’s desires and not a scared infant.
I woke up in the middle of the sleep cycle with his mouth on
mine again, and his hands all over me.
Letting Luke kiss me was the first mistake. Kissing him back was the
biggest. From there on, there
was no going back.
I loved Leia. I swear I did. I loved them both,
and I want to make that clear here. I loved them for
being the same, and loved them for all the differences, Leia’s fire and Luke’s
calm. And I wish I had
never let the rest happen.
I knew I shouldn’t touch him like I did, that I wasn’t
on Corellia where bonding a set of twins was
considered commonplace. But Leia wasn’t there, and in the dark,
and my half-asleep state, he tasted
like her. So alike, and different. Solid where she was soft,
flat where she curved, but in the dark, that
taste washed it all away.
I hadn’t had a man in many years, not since before that mess
with Jabba, and I’d forgotten a lot. Luke
brought it all back. Completely irresistible. Not that I resisted
enough.
The first night, we touched. He was warm and hard
in my hand, arching into the strokes and moaning
my name. I’d give a lot to not know what that sounded like. And
even more to hear him do it one more
time.
By the time we reached Coruscant, we’d had each other
every way two men could. We landed late and
hoarded the rest of the night for ourselves, until dawn brought Chewie and
our responsibilities.
Luke stole one last kiss and melted into the crowd. Chewbacca,
there was no fooling him. He knew what
we’d done. He sniffed once, and then spent the rest of the trip
home lecturing me about not being on Corellia
and about the monogamy of Alderaanian marriages. He swore he wouldn’t
say anything and I promised to
keep my hands off Luke. Never said anything about him keeping his hands
and the Force offa me.
Leia was pleased to see me. So were the kids. I
settled into family life for a couple years. Even with the
twins in the throes of adolescence, we were happy.
I spent a lot of time with Jaina, who’d just gotten her
pilot’s license with both passenger and cargo endorsements.
I taught her everything about the Falcon: how to fix her, how to fly
her, how to take care of her. The crate is Jaina’s
now and still flying high. She takes good care of my lady now that
I can’t see to fly anymore.
Anakin was menacing life and limb with his first lightsaber.
Not on purpose. Thirteen year old boys are all
elbows, knees and too-large feet. Even Jedi boys, trained for grace
and control. At least he got his mother’s ears,
even if the rest of his build was mine.
Jacen spent most of his time at the Jedi academy, studying.
His course load was rigorous, and he seemed to be
detatching from the mundane world of nonForce sensitive. Jace always
looked like me, but his mind and spirit
were purely Luke’s That worried me, and I couldn’t pin down why.
Then I overheard it. A conversation between the twins,
one I wasn’t supposed to know about. Jaina was
arguing about Jedi obligations, while Jace was maintaining that the
Force-blind were obsolete and didn’t know it.
Made my blood run cold. Luke had never taught him
that. I listened and heard him sneer about his sister
and his uncle’s idealism. I knew I had to change this. He was
only seventeen, there was still hope he wouldn’t
fall as his grandfather had, wouldn’t walk into the darkness as Luke had
once.
I did the only thing I could think of. I commed Luke.
We talked, and he agreed to come see Jace and
talk to us both.
He did, and we talked. Jacen maintained his position.
I knew better than to push too hard. If it was just
teen rebellion and not actual Jedi-bigotry, pushing could entrench it deeper.
But it took a lot for me to
keep my temper when he looked at me and sneered about “my kind.”
Luke said the one most withering thing I’ve ever heard from him.
“Your grandfather thought much the
same. Look where it took him.”
“What? To the heights of power? Oh, right.
Mom rules the galaxy now, and you have her ear. Not
much difference. Maybe you’re afraid I’ll boot you out!”
With that, he stomped out.
Luke and I sat there and stared at each other. There didn’t
seem like much to be said. Luke surprised
me when he kissed me again.
“Hey, no, I can’t do that.” I backed off, but part of
me remembered the trip back and didn’t want to
move. And that part of my mind seemed to be getting bigger, crowding
out the rational part.
Luke’s voice was soft, silky in a way I’d never heard it.
“Come to bed. Just once. A proper good-bye.”
If I didn’t know better, I’d say he used the Force.
But he always said that direct control only worked
on the weak-minded. I knew I wasn’t that, but what about indirect control?
Stroking the parts of my
mind that wanted him, releasing the extra hormones and adrenaline that would
turn me on, I think he did
all that. But I wanted him, so it’s my fault too.
I took him to bed.
It was as wonderful as I remembered. He was passionate
and careful, delighting in my body. All the
things Leia didn’t do any more. We’d let our passion cool, her and
me, but that’s no excuse. When he
left the next morning, I knew I didn’t want it to end.
Jace drifted even farther in the next year, and Luke frequented
our place, keeping a close eye on his
wayward student. Leia was gone a lot. Luke was in my bed as often
as not.
The guilt came, as expected. I knew I was betraying
my wife’s principles. I tried telling myself they
weren’t mine, but I knew she trusted me to follow them. And Luke was
darkening, as if keeping our secret
was driving him to other secrets too.
And it all came out one horrible afternoon. I was
lazing around, pretending to sleep. I was screwed silly,
with every bone in my body pretty much melted to pudding. Just the
smell and taste of Luke could make
me crazy, make me want him. He was pacing, stark naked, and so sexy.
I watched him under my
eyelashes and tried to keep my breathing steady. If I coulda talked
my body into it, I’d have stalked
him, pounced and had him on the floor.
He turned and looked at me with an expression I’d never
seen on his face. It took a second to
recognize it: contempt. I’d seen it a lot on Jacen’s face lately, but
it was a shock coming from Luke.
“I didn’t think it’d be so easy. Too easy to control
you, make you want me. Now, I don’t know
how to stop this. I look at myself and see only grey. I have
to get back to the light, get out of the
darkness, quit using you.”
He sat down on the side of the bed. “I love my sister,
and hate her for having you. I want you, and
despise you for succumbing to the Force I used on you. I hate myself
for doing it. What a mess we are.”
My body was awake again, despite my exhaustion, and he
caught hold of me. Ordinarily I’m good
for two, maybe three times in a day. But this would make the
fourth this afternoon. Luke was doing
something to me. Pheremones maybe. When we were in public,
nothing. We were friends,
bond-brothers. In private, I couldn’t keep my hands off of him.
He licked me, bringing me the rest of the way erect, and
then curled in and pressed back against me.
I steadied my cock with one hand, and he turned to glare at me. I could
almost hear him thinking
about how easy I was, and what a slut I was to betray my wife so easily,
not even awake.
He hissed as I pressed against the opening, like it hurt,
but shoved back, hard. A moan, half pain,
half satisfaction came when I was buried inside him. And oh he was
good, tight and hot like always,
and moving like a wild thing. He slammed down against me, spearing
himself, wanting more. He
twisted and bucked. I was just trying to hang on, not come until he
was finished, and then I heard
what he was saying.
“More. More! Hurts. More. Make
me feel.” The gasps were soft, and buried in the pillow,
but his hips were pistoning, impaling himself over and over. I felt
used, like a tool, but that didn’t
stop me, not even that.
I wrapped a hand around his cock, which was hard and ready,
but he pulled it away with the right
hand, and made me clamp down on his hip, pressing my fingers so hard they
were bruising his skin.
“Harder!” he demanded. I clutched his hip and obliged.
If this was what he needed, if this would
help him, this was what I could do. His eyes were so blue, burning
with need and intensity. I had to
kiss him, cheek, jaw, neck, all the parts I could reach.
A soft noise at the door caught my attention. I
cursed vividly, knowing I should have locked it.
Only Jace was home and he usually avoided me, not wanting (he said) to be
reminded of the
Force-blind side of his heritage.
Now he stood in the door, staring, his mouth gaping.
“Dad?” He stared, more. I wilted, and
reached, too late, for the sheet. “Uncle Luke?”
Luke came alert, and I didn’t like the look on his face.
“Jacen.” He beckoned my son, my son, into
the room.
“Uncle Luke? How could you! You said--”
I watched in shock as my bond-brother, my friend, my lover
placed his fingers on my son’s
mouth, silencing him, then drew him down for a kiss. Jacen returned
it, obviously not afraid, or
even surprised.
“How long?” I had to ask, had to know.
Jacen looked up at me, all the old contempt back on his
face. “I seduced him about a year
ago. Apparently, Solo men are his weakness. He finds us irresistible.
Although I can’t see
why he wants you.” He turned back to Luke, pained and confused.
“I didn’t know you took
it, too. I could have fucked you. You shouldn’t have to come
to a No-Forcer for it.”
“Jacen, your bigotry serves you badly.” The voice
might have been Luke’s, but the words
and cadence were Vader’s. I wondered if he always sounded like that
when teaching.
“I love you both, and you each serve different purposes for me. My
beautiful boy. You
look so much like your father that I could not resist when you came to me.”
“You only want me because of him?” Jace was shocked
to the core.
“I want you both.”
I never thought I’d see something like that: My bond-brother
kissing my son, peeling off
clothes with the Force, his hands all over my boy. Somewhere in that
moment, I realized Jacen
was a man. Not my boy, not a child, not even the adolescent I’d been
thinking of him as. It didn’t
make me any more comfortable or any less angry.
I felt stupidly jealous as I pulled Luke away from him.
Luke, patient and blank, rolled me onto
my back and stared down into my eyes. I loved him. I trusted him.
Right that second, I was
scared to death of him.
“Han, have you ever stared out at the salt flats on Tatooine?
The glare will drive you blind
quicker than staring at the suns. Too much light of any kind is as
bad as too much darkness.
That’s what I learned on Eminb. What I was shown in Place of Sacrifice.
For the galaxy to
continue, there had to be both light and dark. That my sacrifice would
be my most talented pupil.”
“Jacen. You’ve turned my boy to the dark side of
your damnable Force.” I was so angry
I couldn’t see straight. If I could have moved, I’d have probably beaten
Luke to a pulp. All his
warnings, all his fears, and he made my son into something like his father!
“There must be Sith for the Jedi to have purpose.
No Sith leads to stagnation for the Jedi.
This is the lesson of the Clone Wars. No Jedi leads to rampant destruction
by the Sith. This
is the lesson of the Empire. Balance, Han, everything in balance.”
Somehow, I believed it. That, I know, had to be
both of them using the Force on me. Stars,
was I sick of being the pawn of politicians and the plaything of Force-users!
“So Jace is going to
take over where his granddad left off, is that it?” I spat.
“Not exactly, father.” Great, he finally decided
to acknowledge me. Then, when his hand had
found its way along my side, and was touching me in a way a son has no business
touching his
father. “I will teach the left-hand path of the Force. The light
side is about knowledge and defense.
The dark side is about power and using it. Future generations
will be trained in both, and carry
the balance within them.”
Jacen turned to Luke, and I watched them communicate in
the way that Luke and Leia did.
Jacen scowled, and quit touching me, only to stroke my hair. He tried
again, concentrating hard.
I wanted desperately to know what was happening, because I had a real bad
feeling about this.
Luke moved aside, his face cool and unreadable.
I still couldn’t move. When my son, my own son,
kissed me, I couldn’t stop him, couldn’t do anything but open my mouth,
directed by the will of two
force-users. No man should know what his son’s kiss tastes like.
To this day, I wish I didn’t have
that memory.
“I want him.”
“No,” Luke said. No hesitation, no emotion in his
voice. “Not yet.”
“Yet? What do you mean not yet!” I struggled,
but the Force held me fast. “That’s my son!”
They ignored me. “You want him for the wrong reasons,”
Luke continued, as if he hadn’t heard,
as if I didn’t matter. “When you want him from desire, not curiosity
or juvenile superiority, then you
will be ready. Then it will advance your training.” The right
hand stroked my body, running over
my chest like I liked him to do.
I was seeing a whole new side to Luke: his father’s son,
the one who never quite walked out of
the darkness after the nightmare with Palpatine’s clones. It scared
the hell out of me. And now he
was taking my son into that darkness so that he could finish getting out
of it.
Over my dead body. And when I decided that, I knew
it just might be.
“When you want him badly enough to take him from me, and
are powerful enough to do so, then
you may have him.” Luke kissed Jace again, not nearly as gently this
time, but his hand never left me.
Jacen made a gesture I’d only seen Luke do a couple times,
and the kiss broke apart as Luke
choked for air, clawing at his throat. He managed a breath and spread
his fingers in a familiar way.
Blue lightening wrapped itself around my boy, dropping him to the floor,
writhing and screaming.
Luke was more in control now, but neither of them was
concentrating on me. I found I could
move, but not very fast. The meter to my gunbelt was the longest of
my life. I fumbled, my hands
clumsy and slow, and set it to heavy stun.
My son--not the arrogant Force-user, not the sneering
brat, just my boy who’d wanted to be just
like me--screamed in a way that made me go cold. I knew I’d only get
one shot, so I took careful aim.
I closed my eyes as I fired. I shot my brother,
my lover, the man whose life I’d saved more times
than I could count. When I opened them, Luke was sprawled over Jace,
and both were unconscious.
I called for Chewie and a med droid.
I didn’t see Luke much after that, and never alone.
He didn’t really recover, and I thought it might
be the Force and the stun combination. He died the next year from a
virus he should have been able
to kick off really easy.
Jacen did walk out of the Darkness. He took over
the Academy and taught that there was no Light
without Dark, no Dark without Light, and intent was everything. Sith
became obsolete. There are still
Jedi who choose the darker paths but they remain Jedi. We never spoke
of that day, and eventually
quit talking at all. Just on family occasions, which Leia and Jaina
organized.
If I had it to do all over again, I’d have bonded both
Luke and Leia. Maybe that would have been
enough to avoid the whole mess. I used to laugh at Luke for wanting
to save the whole galaxy.
All I ever wanted to save was him.
***
The old man fumbled for the switch and turned off the
recorder. His sightless gaze never wavered
from the wall in front of him as he found his whiskey glass and filled it
again from the nearly empty bottle.
“Whatdya think, Chewie? Why do I need to dredge
up all of this? I loved them all, you know.
Takh Anid Gral, I swear I did.”
The great wookiee, his coat just starting to silver, came
and wrapped his old friend in a furry hug.
*Sometimes, Little One, it is necessary merely to talk.*