"I don't like sand," Anakin said and grimaced, "It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere."

Padme watched Anakin's face. It was contorting, as if the thought of simple sand brought memories of torture. But it did. Images of Tatooine were flashing through Anakin's head. Of seemingly mindless Tusken Raiders, brutal slave owners, voracious Hutts, suffocating sandstorms…and his mother. He was remembering the nightmares he'd had about her…they all portrayed her as a moaning and delirious prisoner, with blood gushing out of her wounds and her hair mangled from beatings. She looked like a different person: her smiling and wise brown eyes were rolling and looked like they wanted to die, and her benevolent smile was a terrorized face that looked like it had been through more than any being should ever have gone through. Anakin could always feel her unbearable pain. He always woke up cold and gasping, and he always had the ominous feeling that the nightmares weren't just normal nightmares.

Anakin's eyes seemed to wake up as he forced the memories out of his head. He looked around, at the sparkling lake that looked like a big, blue jewel. And the flowers that bloomed around the building and leaned in toward Anakin and Padme as if they were enthralled by the romance playing out in front of them.

"Not like here…here everything's soft…smooth…" Padme was paralyzed as he reached toward her.

She controlled her sudden urge to hyperventilate. When she'd first met Anakin since he was an irresistibly adorable little boy with his hands still little and his cheeks still chubby, she had been stunned. He'd grown so tall, she found herself looking up at him. His thick, light blond locks had been cut, except for a lone thin braid and a little bun. His baby fat was gone, revealing strong cheek-bones and a handsome face. His eyes had still been blue, but they'd changed. They weren't so…innocent…or questioning. They were deep, piercing, and seemed to search her soul when they looked into her eyes.

She'd said, "My goodness you've grown," and, "You'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine," but she'd been thinking, You're…so…handsome and, I think I'm…in love…

As Anakin reached toward Padme, he found himself quivering. Padme had always been the first thing on his mind since he'd met her on Tatooine, when she'd been a pretty girl with such a soft voice and angelic aurra, but now she was even more. She was overpowering, she was all he lived for now. She was wearing an overwhelmingly beautiful dress that flowed with her as if it were one with her. It had pink that faded into gold, like a sunset. Her dark brown, silky, hair was piled in romantic waves upon her head…she looked like a glorious angel that had descended from the divine heavens themselves.

Anakin's hand finally, lightly, touched her. He stroked her as gently as possible, almost afraid to break her because of her softness. She was so soft

The sensation of Anakin lightly stroking Padme was almost too much for her composed, senator attitude. She was enchanted.

Their eyes locked onto each other. Padme dove into his ocean-like blue eyes, and Anakin stared down into Padme's warm brown eyes. They moved closer, and closer. It felt like there was an eternity between them. Finally, their lips touched. And they sank into a kiss. Their very souls became one. Padme couldn't get enough of the kiss, she rapidly went deeper and deeper, as if this moment with Anakin could vanish any second. Anakin felt like he was in Heaven, like everything in the galaxy was right. They wanted to stay in the world they were in now, their own world where everything was beautiful and right.

But Padme suddenly realized she lived in a real world, and came back to it, while Anakin found no reason to leave this little piece of Heaven.

"No," she said abruptly and broke the miracle, "I…shouldn't have done that."

Anakin felt shattered, and he looked on at the sparkling lake with a torn expression.

He felt an uncontrollable lump form in his throat as he said, "Sorry."

For Anakin, it had felt like he'd suddenly been dragged out of Heaven, and back into the torturous reality that he wanted no part of.