Work Text:
“Are you sure you can just-”
From within the Falcon’s aft-access hatch, Han Solo raises his head to level Skywalker with a shrug that moves his entire face and a grease-covered gesture as he waves a hand. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve been fixing her up for as long as you’ve been alive.”
From his place seated on the Falcon’s floor, Luke raises a dubious brow and scoots himself closer to the hatch opening, craning his neck to look down into the exposed core of the ship's defrag ring. He frowns, and Han waves his hand again.
“Don’t give me that look, I got it under control.”
“I’m just saying, it doesn’t seem like rerouting auxiliaries over the defrag is a good idea, Han.” Luke points out, and Han’s expression falls, brows pulling in. Trust the farm boy to have big opinions about his ship. “If you overload the converters, we’ll be stuck floating until we can reroute power again. What if that hits us in a firefight?”
Han stands up in the access hatch, chest deep in wires and his beloved ship's engineering, and he leans in to fold both arms against the ship’s floor.
“Which is why I’m replacing the converters in the defrag too,” He says, and the smuggler takes joy in the way the boy from Tatooine blinks big doe eyes at him and sinks back just a fraction. Han can see why he’s the talk of the Rebellion, looking like he does. Han feels a flicker of a grin cross his face as he watches Luke turn that around in his farm-boy brain but he doesn’t pause to watch the conclusion of Skywalker’s thoughts, going back to his work in the cramped access hatch.
“-Hand me that hydrospanner, will you?”
Han sticks a hand up top and grabs gamely at the spanner passed over.
“Can you even do that on a YT model?”
Han huffs out a tight sound, and from within the hatch, his voice echoes. “No, you can’t. I’m glad they passed out manufacturer manuals for reading material in your sandpit.”
“So how-”
Han rises again, clutching the almost-new converter he’d bartered off the quartermaster on Hoth. “My baby isn’t some run-of-the-mill girl. She’s custom; I made the modifications myself”
Luke looks at him, dubious. “Well, that explains a lot.”
“Yeah, she was good enough to save your ass.”
Luke inclines his head then, and gives a shrug. “She’s fast.”
“Yeah, you’re damn right she is,” Han says, waving the converter around as he sinks back down into the hatch. His voice starts to muffle again, and he’s pretty sure he can hear Luke stifle a laugh. “So, alls I have to do is change out the converters, so I won’t overload anything in the defrag, and we’ll be just fine.”
“Huh.” Is all the farm boy says, and Han feels just a fraction underwhelmed. He reaches into the defrag ring and curses softly as he almost misplaces the converter he’s holding.
“Come on, sweetheart. Don’t get like this, we made up this morning when I regeared the navi-computer.” Han murmurs, half under his breath, as he just manages to swap out the last of the converters. Eventually, he pulls himself back up out of the access hatch, wiping off his hands on the scrap of rag he has tucked into his belt. He’s surprised to find Skywalker still watching him with those same big doe eyes, blinking at him with a kind of knowing that almost makes Han’s skin crawl. Sometimes he wonders what Luke can see, and from time to time he thinks that the kid isn’t merely watching him, but somehow has the capacity to see inside. Han tries not to dwell on that too hard.
“You’re making a lot of upgrades for a man who’s on his way soon.”
There it is. Han shutters, and he takes as much a step back as he can still inside the hatch, reaches to pick himself up and prop himself back up to sit on the opposite side of the opening, open hatch between them.
“Ship always needs an upgrade.” Han shrugs, and while he doesn’t look at Luke, he can feel his attention, the heat of it, its sheer enormity. Han shifts.
“I’m getting that impression, yeah,” Luke says, and it's almost off-handed if not for the way his head tilts just so. “You keep saying that you want to leave, but I don’t believe you.”
Han looks up at him then, and his hands are still where he’d been fidgeting with the hydrospanner he’d used, cleaning its head incessantly. “You’d better believe it, kid.”
Luke shakes his head, and it’s such a determined gesture that Han is struck for a moment. It’s a mistake, because Luke keeps talking.
“No, I don’t think I should,” Luke says, and he leans forward where he sits, like he wants a better view. There’s a smile on his face, and it makes something in Han’s chest twinge. “You want to stay. I know you do. It’s okay, you don’t need to tell me, I think I get it. But you’re doing all this and you keep saying you want to go, but you aren’t.”
“It’s hard weather out there. I can’t fly out.”
“It’s always hard weather on Hoth, I’ve never been this cold in my whole life.” Luke counters. “But you still could. The ship could do it just fine even without all your modifications.”
“Well, I’ve got that supply run to make for the Princess next week,” Han says, and he hauls himself to his feet, hoping for a desperate moment that he’ll be too much to bother going after. He should have counted on Skywalker's stubbornness.
“Andor and his crew could take it.”
Han doesn’t turn as he hears footsteps follow him down the echoing corridor of the Falcon. “No, they couldn’t, they’re-”
“You don’t need a reason, y’know,” Luke interjects, and Han feels a hand come to curl around his wrist. He jerks his arm to break the grip, and as he does, he’s turned just so, forced to look at the boy from Tatooine as they stop fast in the corridor.
“I don’t need a reason.” Han scoffs, and he jerks his hand the rest of the way back. “What would you know.’
“Clearly, I know something.” Luke points out, and Han feels something flicker in his chest, something old that he’d very much like to bury. He didn’t need these people, and he certainly doesn’t need some farm boy from a sand pit telling him what he wants.
“Yeah, I bet you think so.” Han snaps back, and it's sharp enough to make Skywalker flinch. Han’s chest aches to see it, but he knows it's necessary. It affords him the distance to turn tail and run, like he always does.
As he takes the ramp down into the rebel base at speed, Han thinks he can hear Luke’s voice echo after him.
“I’m glad you’re staying!”