What I'm Afraid Of [Owen Lars, Luke Skywalker, G]

[beatrice_otter]

Title: What I'm Afraid Of
Author: beatrice_otter 
Summary: An hour in the life of Owen Lars
Rating: G
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Uncle Owen, Luke
Word Count: 1,183
Betaed by: redbyrd_sgfic 

“…the unreasonable demands of the koba-farmers of the Ratani system have been summarily dismissed, and normal production has resumed.” The Coruscant-shaped voice of the Holonet News announcer was the opposite of everything in the Lars homestead: cool, refined, austere. It was a good bet he’d never worked any kind of a farm, and wouldn’t know what a reasonable demand was if it gave him a lap-dance. “Prices should return to a fair rate shortly. Ratani remains on the list of undesirable …” the signal dissolved in static; Owen sighed and adjusted the transceiver manually. It was almost as old as he was, but they couldn’t afford to replace it. “… without official and pressing business would do well to steer clear of it. In other news …”

Owen had never been glad that Tatooine was under the thumb of the Hutts before, but he was now. The Empire didn’t seem to bother the Hutts, and at least the Hutts never bothered with poor farmers just trying to eke out a living. Owen didn’t have much use for any government butting their noses into peoples’ business, but at least when it had been the Republic doing it they’d never paid much attention to anything beyond their own borders. The Empire didn’t seem to care for such niceties. He took a sip of his water, rolling it around in his mouth for parched tissues to soak up, enjoying the cool of home as he waited out the worst of the noon heat before venturing out for the evening chores.

He heard the distant whine of an approaching speeder; that would be Beru, returning with Luke. He’d spent the night at the Darklighters with the other children in the neighborhood, and the gathering was supposed to have lasted another night, but Beru had gotten a call saying there’d been a fight and Luke was upset and needed to come home. The boy was too old to be throwing tantrums, but Owen wasn’t going to say anything about it; the homestead was too quiet without him.

“…Lord Vader has won another glorious victory over the rebels of Null.” Owen’s attention snapped back to the news. “All loyal citizens of the Empire will be glad to hear that rumors of a surviving member of the Jedi cult of filth were nothing more than rumors to bolster the Nullians pitiful efforts. As there were no Nullian survivors, this will be the last time the Empire will be forced to deal with such trash. Lord Vader is currently moving on the insurgents in the Kovari region. We expect another quick resolution to that conflict.”

Poor bastards. They had to know they couldn’t win, and that nothing good could ever come of drawing the monster’s attention. Owen clicked the news off as the announcer switched to the latest sports scores, satisfied that Vader was safely occupied half a galaxy away. He wondered if the Nullians were really all dead this time; Holonet News had claimed the same last time Null had rebelled and been put down. Kenobi probably knew; he used to offer news when he came around to see Luke, before Owen had put a stop to it. They already had a target painted across their backs just taking the boy in; adding a homing beacon by allowing visits from a Jedi with contacts in the wider galaxy was just asking for trouble. Besides, Owen loved the boy, and he wasn’t about to let the man who’d ruined Shmi’s son get his hands on her grandson.

Owen dragged himself to his feet, ignoring the aches of almost forty years of hard life. He’d dragged a vaporator into the shop for some major repair—Sand People had vandalized it two nights ago—and it wasn’t going to fix itself. He’d give Beru a kiss, ask the boy how the party went, and get that taken care of. The way Luke was growing, they couldn’t afford to have that vaporator down any longer, not if they wanted to be able to afford shoes and clothes that actually fit him.

Owen walked through the dark underground halls to the workshop and speeder bay, trailing a hand over stone walls worn smooth by time and wear. He heard the whine of the speeder cut off as Beru parked it. He could hear Luke crying as he turned the corner and sighed. Poor kid. It wasn’t easy, being the youngest of the local children, and some of the other boys’ fathers needed to pay closer attention to their son’s behavior. Still, learning to toughen up and deal with it was something every kid had to deal with. Beru was too soft; she made a good mother, but didn’t really understand that sometimes boys were boys.

He pushed open the door to the garage.

“ …and I hate them all!” Luke was saying. “I wish they were dead!”

Owen jerked at his words. “Luke!” he snapped. “What have I told you about saying things like that?”

Luke jumped guiltily, sniffing back tears and giving him the soft, sad eyes Owen always had to steel himself against when he was disciplining the boy. Thank the Maker Luke was generally a good child; Owen didn’t think he could keep his gruffness if he saw that look more often. He searched his face for traces of Anakin, and let out a half breath when he saw none.

“I’m not s’posed to say things I don’t really mean,” Luke repeated dutifully. “I don’t really hate them and I’d be sad if anything happened to them.” He sniffed again. “But Uncle Owen! You don’t know what they did! They called me—”

“It doesn’t matter what they called you,” Owen replied as gently as he could. Wasn’t much; the desert left your vocal chords as dry and scratchy as your clothes. “They were wrong. But you saying bad things doesn’t make things right. I don’t want to hear you say things like that.” His voice hardened. “Ever. Do you understand?”

Luke heaved a sigh as if this was the most unreasonable demand ever. “Yes, sir,” he replied dutifully.

Owen nodded. “Good. Put your stuff in your room, and then you can come out and help me in the workshop.”

“Actually, I’d like his help in hydroponics,” Beru put in, giving him a warning look.

“That’s fine,” Owen said. He shooed Luke off with his things.

“Don’t you think you were being a little hard on him, Owen?” Beru asked as soon as the door was closed. “You don’t know what they were saying to him. He has a right to be angry.”

“He shouldn’t have said those things,” Owen said stubbornly.

“He didn’t mean anything by it.” Beru shook her head. “It’s just one of those things people say all the time.”

Owen didn’t reply, just stared at her. She knew as well as he did that Luke wasn’t ‘people.’ Not with his father.

“You’re being too hard on him, Owen. He’s just a boy.” He’s not his father hung in the air, unspoken, between them.

“Boys grow up,” Owen said.

Comments

[temple-mistress.livejournal.com]

*claps* Oh, that was fantastic! This is the kindest portrayal of Owen I've yet to read; you did an amazing job bridging the AOTC Owen with the ANH Owen. He's gruff and hardened but he loves Luke and only wants to protect his family.

I like this image of a younger Luke, too--kind, but quick to anger; obedient, yet a hint of rebelliousness; soft, but possessed of an inner steel. Owen is right to worry, of course, and will do anything to keep this boy he loves from becoming the man he--and the galaxy--fears.

Mmm...I need to find me some more OT young Luke fics now. Thanks so much for this!

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you! Uncle Owen is one of those characters that gets the shaft simply because he doesn't happen to fall in line with Our Heroes, but has his own POV instead. He's not a bad man. He's a rather ordinary man trying to keep his family safe in the only way he can. He happens to be wrong about the best way to go about it--or we think he's wrong--but in the end, look at how Luke turned out. If Owen were the grim, hostile martinet fandom portrays him as, Luke would have had rather more issues than he does in canon.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

(hey, going through some of your back catalog!)

I've always rather liked Owen, and never quite got that people thought he was awful and harsh. (I mean, just on ANH alone, neither Luke nor Beru seem the slightest bit afraid of him. Just sayin, fandom!)

[beatrice_otter]

Absolutely!

(Enjoying your stroll across fandoms?)

[emavalexis.livejournal.com]

Damn. I really, really enjoyed this. A very well-written look into Owen's understandable anxieties regarding Luke not turning out like his father. The last line of this has a tremendous impact because of what we know from canon.

Excellent story.

[beatrice_otter]

Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, Owen's raising the son of a guy who slaughters everyone who crosses him. Of course it frightens him! He still loves Luke, tries to treat him well, and above all make sure he doesn't turn out like his father and never comes to his father's attention.

[jacens-heart.livejournal.com]

Good story! I've always been curious about Owen and Beru, about how much they knew about Luke's parents and what had happened to them.

Owen's always come across as gruff but I think Luke probably needed that as he did in your story, something to keep him on the right path. And he's so quick-tempered too but not in the same way Anakin was.

But it's driving me crazy that you didn't say what the boys were saying to Luke that upset him!

[beatrice_otter]

Thanks for reviewing! I don't think what the boys were saying really matters. Children can be incredibly mean to one another, particularly when you realize how thin-skinned they are. I can think of any number of things they could have said that would have upset him, all important to a child but not so at all to an adult, except insofar as they upset the kids.

And yes, it was very good for Luke that his uncle was a stolid, no-nonsense kind of guy.

[immortal-jedi.livejournal.com]

Wow. That last line is perfect! I really liked this.

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you!

[sunnyskywalker]

Yay for Larsfic! As stable and compassionate as Luke turned out, I think they must have been pretty good parents to him despite a few personality clashes. Thanks for this!

It wasn’t easy, being the youngest of the local children, and some of the other boys’ fathers needed to pay closer attention to their son’s behavior

I also suspect that a lot of the local children don't have fathers anymore. Twenty-six men died on that attempt to free Shmi; Cliegg seems to have died of his injuries between movies, and the other three might have too for all we know. That's got to be a good chunk of the local population. Being a single parent trying to run a hardscabble little farm and raise children would be tough, so it wouldn't be surprising if a lot of kids got out of control. And maybe grew up resenting the Larses too.

[beatrice_otter]

That's true; if Luke is the youngest of the group, most of the others are probably old enough to be children of that group. And resentment--yeah, for getting so many men killed going after a former slave who had only been there a few years. Close-knit rural communities, you're not really "from there" until your family has been there two generations and have married in. I hadn't thought of that.

I totally agree with you on the kind of parenting Luke must have received, given how he turned out.

Thanks for commenting.

[(Anonymous)]

It's sometimes hard, to realize that regardless of what you feel about your parents, and how much you may seem to think that they don't care/ understand what is going on in your life -- that really all they really want is the best for you, and that w/o them, all those good parts of you. . . wouldn't be there ( for better or for worse)

[beatrice_otter]

Absolutely. Uncle Owen may be gruff and a bit stern; he still loves Luke and is doing the best he knows how.

Thank you for reviewing!

[the-little-owl.livejournal.com]

I never spend much thought on how Luke's childhood must have been on the farm, but that's a great approach to it. Especially all the hints at the Imperial policy and the threat they are living under. Great job!

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you!

[pronker]

I liked how Owen relaxed by listening to the news and commented himself on the spin that the government was giving everything, especially about all the Nullians being killled (just like last time!) It's an excellent character study, and then we get to see Beru act the protector and have Luke be with her for a while, helping, after his upset. And of course, little Lukey with his obedience, as if he really understands that it isn't nice to wish harm to others.

[beatrice_otter]

I'm not sure how relaxing Owen finds the news--note that he turns it off right after they mention what Vader is doing.

Thanks for reviewing!

[luminations.livejournal.com]

Lovely! He's not his father indeed. Excellent portrayal of Owen and Beru, and young!Luke!

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you! I had fun writing it.

[were-lemur.livejournal.com]

Wow. An excellent portrayal of a quiet (but important) moment. You got the voices exactly right; I could hear them.

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you! That's a great compliment.

[saucysushi.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love Owen Lars fic, there's a serious lack of it. And this was done so well - he's totally in character and actually really deep. I always thought the way Luke turned out had a lot to do with him. Beru is really protective and loving but Owen only has his best interests at heart. "Boys grow up," Owen said. Great line.

[beatrice_otter]

They both have Luke's best interests at heart, just in different ways. And they did do a really good job of raising him, in difficult circumstances.

Thanks for reviewing!

[seal-girl.livejournal.com]

That was a very interesting and well-written fic. I liked the shortness of the time-frame - it really in just a moment in his life, but it speaks volumes about, not only his character, but also a glimpse of Luke's life.
I like his resentment of Kenobi, and the way he listened for news about the Empire - though Tattoine is Hutt-controlled, there is a wider implication of what is happening.
And it's all the more interesting as we know what's going to happen!

*enjoys, for fish*
Sealgirl

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you! I enjoyed writing it.

[dancing-star01.livejournal.com]

This is a brilliant little gem of a story. So well-written and your characterizations are perfect. Loved it! :)

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you!

[laulan.livejournal.com]

What a fantastic look into Owen's character--I really enjoyed your view of him, and this snippet of Luke's childhood was wonderfully poignant. Thank you!

[beatrice_otter]

Thank you!