Luke hadn't actually intended to stop by the old homestead. His plans had been to investigate old Ben's former home and see if he'd left behind anything about the Jedi, or Anakin Skywalker, anything to do with the past that might be helpful now. There wasn't anything left for him where he had grown up except memories. It was a split second change of plans when he flew over the moisture farm and saw signs of habitation.

It shouldn't have been a surprise, life on Tatooine was harsh enough that wasting things out of sentiment would be foolish. Odds were good that if someone hadn't claimed it then others would have picked it over for anything useful, but somehow it still felt like an insult. Before he could even think it through he was sending the X-wing down. R2-D2 beeped questioningly.

"Just a little detour, R2," Luke said, trying to sound confident in his decision. There wasn't a great deal of activity he could see, other than an astromech that scooted away as soon as it saw him. That in itself was a little odd, he would have expected more people or droids to run an entire farm, but maybe they were out somewhere. Then, probably alerted by the astromech, someone appeared.

Luke had hoped he'd at least recognize whoever had moved in to the moisture farm. Instead a stranger stood there, looking confused. Luke didn't blame him for the surprise, there were very few reasons to head out this far into the middle of nowhere, but it was still a shock.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my home?" The words slipped out before Luke could stop them. It was the wrong thing to say, and the stranger immediately stiffened, looking defensive.

"What do you mean your home?" The stranger challenged. "It didn't belong to anyone before I moved in. I checked."

"It belonged to me," Luke said, even if the memory stung. He hadn't intended any of this, but seeing someone else in his childhood home was more of an insult than he'd expected.

The man shook his head, some of his dark hair escaping the messy bun he had it pulled back in and falling into his face. "Try again, the previous owners are buried outside."

"They're.. My aunt and uncle may be out there, but I'm not," Luke spoke a little too quickly.

The stranger faltered at that. "Then where have you been all this time?"

"After my home was attacked I joined the Rebellion," Luke said, trying to regain his calm. "I'm Luke Skywalker, my aunt and uncle were Beru and Owen Lars."

"Skywalker?" The stranger looked surprised at that, eyes widening and then he quickly caught himself, looking stubborn and a little guilty. "They said you vanished after the attack, taken prisoner or killed or something."

It was Luke's turn to feel a little guilty then. He'd never thought to send word back. Everything had happened so quickly the first few days and then there was the Rebellion and the war and with Biggs gone he'd not even thought about if any of his other friends were still on Tatooine. Surely someone had heard something? Except he knew well enough how hard it was to get any sort of reliable news unless you went into one of the cities.

"I wasn't, I left, I didn't..." Luke trailed off. Didn't what? Think things would change while he was off? He hadn't even thought about it, not really. Thinking about Tatooine was another sore spot he hadn't been ready to try and make peace with, not when there were a dozen other more pressing concerns. Except it was starting to look like he'd need to deal with it if he wanted to move on.

"And now you're back," the stranger sounded tired suddenly, deflating and reaching up to rub over his face. Luke couldn't make out what he muttered then, but he guessed it was some sort of profanity. "How soon do you want me gone?"

"Want you… I don't want you gone. I'm only planning to be on planet for a few months," Luke admitted. "I probably shouldn't even have come by, but..."

"But you saw someone had invaded your old home and it was a shock?" The stranger asked, and Luke found himself nodding. "I understand that. Where are you staying?"

"A, ah, friend of mine had a place out closer to the dune sea. I was planning to stay there, unless that's been taken over too," Luke said, trying to make it sound more like a joke, not sure how successful he was.

"I haven't heard of anyone living out that way," the stranger shifted, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his head. "If you wanted to stay here there's room. It's your place, after all."

"Maybe," Luke hedged. He'd already made one impulsive decision that day and while it wasn't exactly a disaster he'd have a hard time saying it was a success. That wasn't even getting into his feelings about staying in the homestead after so long. "Who are you anyway?

"Dev Morgan," the stranger said easily. "I can offer you a drink at least. I don't get many visitors all the way out here, but I've been here long enough to know desert hospitality at least."

Luke nodded at that, feeling a momentary pang of nostalgia. As long as someone wasn't outright trying to murder you or steal from you you'd offer them water and shelter, even if you personally couldn't stand them. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Dev led him back to the kitchen and Luke couldn't help looking around, taking in all the little ways the place had changed. It was almost easier to pretend it was one of any other similar homes he'd been in on Tatooine, they tended to get the same sort of look out of necessity.

The kitchen was a lot more sparse than he remembered, and he took a seat as Dev passed him a cup.

"How long have you been living here?" Luke asked, breaking the still somewhat tense silence.

"A few years now. I decided I'd had enough of always being on the move and thought I'd try my hand at moisture farming. It's worked out well so far." Dev shrugged, then frowned. "I should get back to fixing the hydroponics."

"Clogged fertilizer tube? I could give you a hand with that," Luke found himself offering before he could stop to think about that.

"It would go easier with a second set of hands, Spook's good at a lot of things, but he can't really help me there," Dev said.

"Spook?" Luke asked.

"The astromech you scared witless with your arrival. Don't worry, it's not personal. He's just a little high strung, some programming glitch. Once he figures out you're not going to eat him he'll come out of hiding."

"And it's just the two of you?" Luke asked, a little surprised. It had been hard work keeping the farm running with three people sometimes, he had trouble imagining how much more work it would be with just one human and a droid.

"Yeah. And I know that look, I make it work," Dev smiled slightly at that, and Luke found himself smiling back as he finished his drink and got up to help him with the hydroponics system.

It was strangely soothing to slip back into just discussing the farm itself, and neutral enough as topics went. Dev never asked why he'd come back to Tatooine, and Luke didn't have to lie to him. It was easy to lose track of time and before he knew it he was going out to tell R2 to come in before it got much darker.

With how much everything had changed, the last thing Luke expected was seeing his room. He stood in the doorway, heart in his throat, as he looked over all the things he remembered.

Dev stood awkwardly, a little behind him. "Some things had been tossed around so I cleaned them up, but I left things alone otherwise. Plenty of other rooms for me to use, right?"

"Thank you," Luke said, sincerely. It wasn't what he'd expected, but… maybe making this his home base while he prepared for Han's rescue wouldn't be the worst thing.

"Can't this go any faster?" Dev had to raise his voice over the wind and the whine of the speeder's engine, and Luke could hear the tension in it even if he didn't quite dare to glance over.

"I'm risking an overload as is," Luke gritted out, focused on the route ahead. He couldn't look behind them any more than he could look over, but he knew what he'd see. A wall of sand towering up into the sky, whipped up by the wind, impossibly huge and moving faster than seemed possible.

The weather was always touchy around this time of year, but the reports that morning had predicted it would be stable enough for the day, and they'd made the trip out to Anchorhead for much needed supplies. The sandstorm warning hadn't gone out until they were already headed back, and they'd decided to try and outrun it rather than turn back and wait it out. Now Luke was regretting that decision.

He couldn't turn to see the oncoming storm, but Dev was under no such restrictions and from the mounting tension he could sense beside him they were cutting it close. For all that Dev didn't talk about his past much, Luke knew he'd been on Tatooine long enough to deal with sandstorms before. This was the tense worry of someone who knew exactly what they were dealing with, not someone panicking at the first sight of a smudge on the horizon.

They nearly made it, the familiar domes less than fifty feet away before the speeder bucked and twisted. Luke fumbled, killing the engine before the sand could choke it, covering his face with the crook of his elbow. There was a lurch as the speeder went down into the sand, and Luke hunkered down as much as he could. The wind howled, blotting out all sound, not that Luke would have wanted to open his mouth to try and talk. Even with his sleeve as a filter of sorts it was nearly impossible to draw breath without choking on the sand that seemed to scour at every inch of exposed skin. The speeder provided nearly no shelter at all, and the wind tugged hard enough on his clothes that he nearly missed a tugging of an entirely different sort.

Luke resisted, he'd had it drilled into him since he could barely walk how to survive if caught in a sandstorm. Hunker down, protect yourself as much as you could, and wait it out. No matter how close the homestead might be, trying to find it would be next to impossible. They could wander in circles, or off in the entirely wrong direction. But Dev wouldn't be shaken, wrenching on his arm until Luke gave in against his better judgment.

He stumbled blindly, fumbling until he could get a grip on Dev's wrist with his mechanical hand. He wouldn't risk them coming apart at least, and silently cursing foolish offworlders and more foolish farmboy Jedi he followed him away from the speeder.

After a few blind steps something shifted, slowly sliding into place and if he had the breath for it Luke would have laughed. As it was he stepped more surely, feet finding the path and moving as quickly as the battering storm would let him, never loosening his grip. He'd forgotten, in the moment of long childhood conditioning taking over, that he didn't need his eyes to find his way. A dozen steps, then a dozen more, and he was stepping down out of the storm and into the sheltered dip of the homestead. He could breathe then, blinking grit and tears away from his eyes as he tugged Dev with him through the closest door, shutting it firmly behind them.

Inside the thick walls the scream of the storm faded to an angry rumble, and he slowly caught his breath. It took a small shake to make him realize he still had Dev's wrist locked in his hand and he loosened his grip, finally letting go. Dev was a sight, caked in sand from head to toe, his normally deep blue hair too dusty to tell the color now. Luke didn't need a mirror to know he probably looked the same. Dev coughed, clearing his throat, and Luke was suddenly very aware of how dry his own mouth was.

"Next time we should probably turn back," Dev said, a little ruefully, then he was yanking off his backpack, checking over the supplies inside. "Glad the bag's sandproof at least, supplies are fine."

"Probably. We made it though." Luke gingerly rubbed at his face, the skin still stinging from being sandblasted. "What were you thinking though? Dragging us out of the speeder like that. If I hadn't been able to sense the way back..."

Dev shrugged at that, not looking up in a way that looked vaguely guilty somehow. "You could though, we were almost there and I figured it was some kind of Jedi thing? And you have to admit, it's a lot nicer in here than choking on sand for a couple hours out there. I figured you'd use the Force, or, uh, something. "

"Yeah, but..." Luke started, but Dev had the pack up again, already walking away towards the storage room.

"I'll put the stuff away and you can hit the sonics first, alright?" Dev called back over his shoulder.

Luke hesitated, but the temptation to get clean won out. He could save that discussion for another day.