Odd Kind of Honeymoon by Knight_Aragorn (PG)

[rynne.livejournal.com]

Fandom: STAR WARS: EXTENDED UNIVERSE
Pairing: Luke/Mara
Author on LJ: deaka
Author Website: ff.net profile and JC Forums profile
Why this must be read: This will be my last rec this month--last, but very certainly not least. "Odd Kind of Honeymoon" is a chaptered short story/novella about--surprise, surprise--Luke and Mara's honeymoon. This particular honeymoon would be bound to be odd given their propensity for finding trouble, but there's more to it--of all places to go, Luke takes her to Tatooine, and shows her many of the places that were important to him and shaped him into who he is. They do find trouble, but they find a lot more than that, and it ends up being just as much an emotional journey as a physical one, with two highly independent people growing into this new marriage thing.

This story has inspired some of my longest (meaning 1000+ words) reviews to date, and there's a good reason for that: there are so very many things to comment on. Details are both perfect for the characters and beautifully described, a single sentence can have multiple nuances, and rarely do I see portrayals of Luke and Mara even as good as this, much less better. There is just so much insight into Luke and Mara, and all the observations blend so seamlessly into the story that there's no clunkiness at all. K_A has one of the most lovely and eloquent writing styles I've had the pleasure of reading, and that combined with her ability to plot and characterize means that this story, along with everything else of hers, should definitely not be missed.


They left Mos Espa early the next morning, before even the first sun had crept over the horizon. Luke flicked her a glance as he pulled his tunic on, for there was indeed a purpling mark over his abdomen.

“Does it hurt?” Mara winced and reached to touch his skin tentatively; it was warm against her fingers despite the chill of the pre-dawn air.

“It would be more than an understatement to say I’ve had worse,” Luke said wryly.

“Mm. I suppose.”

“It’s fine, Mara.”

It wasn’t fine. That fight or flight mechanism on waking ran deep; it was as much a part of her as her name, and had saved her life more times that she could count. It had been trained into her from an age so early she could barely remember being without it. Teaching herself not to react adversely to a continued presence sharing her bed was not proving easy.

And she’d hurt Luke as a result. Accidentally, of course – but pain caused by accident was still pain caused. What about next time? What if it was the kind of hurt that didn’t heal so quickly or so easily? She was unused to guarding herself from causing pain, and marriage created a unique position of being able to hurt in the extreme closeness it evoked.

That frightened her more than she would admit. She knew that eventually there would be some hurt; it was unrealistic to expect otherwise, and their long history had proven that they excelled at hurting one another. The thought of his ability to cause her pain made Mara uncomfortable, as it always had – probably as it had long before she’d even been aware of it; and a new facet, that of her own power to bring him hurt, brought comparable measures of disquiet in the expectation it seemed to place on her.


Odd Kind of Honeymoon