Luke Skywalker x OFC (Luke Skywalker/Rilu Boa)
Warning: Angst | 662 words | AO3
A/N: Thank you to my amazing beta readers, @icearrows1200 and @schrucy. Please enjoy! If you want a mood setter, here’s a track that helped keep me motivated and the main inspiration for the mood set in this ficlet! ♫ (2nd A/N below...)
Summary: Rilu, the last link to Luke's past seems to be fading into oblivion. He had made a promise to her long ago before fleeing from Tatooine- To return to help free her and take her off the planet. Now he’s returned, and is faced with thoughts and emotions he really didn't know he even had, all the while Rilu’s grasp on life loosens. Lingering on the past was not the way of the Jedi, yet he finds himself doing so, as his beloved friend slips away. He found himself not ready to let go just yet, and unable to accept the seemingly imminent demise of his old friend.
Rilu, the last link to Luke's past, was rapidly fading away.
Even though he had lost so much and so many people in these past four years, it was all still so hard for him. Family, friends, mentors, and not that long ago his own father. No matter how many times death occurred, it was never any easier. Right now he couldn’t afford to lose another. Not her.
He’d unknowingly clung to the past as if it were a rope, but even now it was unraveling, fraying, strand by strand, before his very eyes. Right in his arms. It seemed that he was too late. She was going to die. Wasn’t she?
Despite everything he'd gone through, his Jedi training, and despite how distant the life he once knew was, he found himself not ready to let go just yet. A part of Luke coveted the past, he realized. That world was abruptly and violently torn from him. And now, there he sat, face to face, in his very own old abandoned homestead where Rilu had sought refuge, with emotions he hadn't had the time to properly deal with before. That he really didn't know he even had. All the while his beloved friend, a living remnant from that past, slipped away.
Lingering on the past was not the way of the Jedi, he knew this. It is said to embrace death, as it is a part of life. To celebrate the ones who became one with the force. But Luke couldn't bring himself to accept that. Not yet. Not when he had promised to come back to help her. To free her.
He had made that promise so long ago as a naive kid. But he still intended to keep that promise. No matter where life, the rebellion, or The Force took him. He never wanted to let her down. But he was too late. Wasn’t he? A part of him felt as if he had failed her.
As he reached out to the force, he could feel her life waning. But the once defensive anger and fear that plagued her had dissipated into waves of relief and calm.
His eyes roved over her body. Blood, dirt, bruises and scars of varying age were the evidence of what she endured and how hard she had fought to survive. How hard she had fought for her freedom. If only he'd been here sooner.
He thought to wait would be a good thing. To not repeat the mistakes made on Bespin, but...
Luke could feel his throat tighten. A downpour of tears threatened to escape.
As if feeling his inner turmoil, Rilu used her dwindling strength to reach out to him. She cupped his face with one of her calloused hands. Her thumb stroked over his moles, like she was affirming it was really him, then over his top lip at a faint scar she seemingly had noticed. She smiled.
Luke leaned into her touch, putting his hand over hers, and began to weep. It wasn't fair for it to end like this. She couldn’t die! Not now. Not when true liberation was right in her grasp. But her smile. Despite it all, having to go through it all alone and for so long, she smiled. He could feel that in this very moment she was happy.
Perhaps it was meant to happen this way. Perhaps she was accepting the possibility of death, and was embracing it. Maybe then too, Luke would be able to accept this as well.
Luke was going to take her away from here. Far away. He knew this. No matter the outcome, he’d keep his other promise. To take her off this wasteland of a planet.
She never looked away from him. She looked deeply into his eyes, like if she did he’d disappear. Her expression was so tired, yet so calm. Her gaze only ceased when she closed her eyes, falling into a slumbered state in his arms.
A/N: This was a part of lore for my OC x Canon selfship.I planned on making a sequel to this fic but from Rilu’s perspective! (I still might do that, considering I have a fair amount of it written down.) Please let me know if you'd guys want this as an x Reader though, since it could translate well into that! I hope I got Luke as a character down! Kinda my first time really writing him… I got into Star Wars in late July 2025, so I'm still learning everything! I apologize if there are any lore mistakes or mischaracterization! I've been reading through the many Star Wars novels, so don't worry! I am learning and educating myself! Anyways... I feel like a part of Luke would dwell and miss his past, considering how abruptly his life changed during the events of A New Hope. As someone who has gone through abrupt life changing things, I tried to take what I felt from that and apply it to him. I always find myself clinging to anything from my past, having to leave a lot behind, so I feel like Luke would probably do the same. Not terribly so, but he finds himself doing so without even realizing it for a little while.That's just me though... I hope you guys agree, or at least understand. I know he has more control over his emotions than, let's say, Anakin, so I hope I managed to keep that trait of his, even while being in distress and contemplation, ambushed with emotions he didn’t know he was even avoiding. He'd have decent control, even in sadness. I dunno, fahahaha!
