Title: Our Lips Are Sealed
Author: slow dawn
Timeframe: Just after AOTC
Characters: Anakin, Padmé
Genre: Angst, a little romance, vignette
Summary: The morning after their wedding, Padmé wonders what they have gotten themselves into.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars and all that jazz.
Notes: Thanks to brodiew and lunanightshade for the great betas and all the help.
This is my second response to challenge posed in the Naberrie Household Vignette-Challenge Thread, by RyooNaberrie.
PM me if you'd like the link to the challenge for the rules.
This vignette was also written in 2006.
Cheers!
It wouldn't have to be that way--we could keep it a secret...
Anakin awoke to a blinding light that poured through the open window. He squinted and rolled over to see his wife. Somehow, her sleep remained undisturbed.
For a moment, he simply gazed at her, immersing himself in her beauty. Her face was awash in the pale light of a new day—a new life.
Sighing, Anakin closed his eyes rolled onto his back. He could hardly believe the events that had transpired the previous day. It was as if he was living out one of his dreams. He considered pinching himself to be sure it was real. It was simply seemed too good to be true.
He glanced over at his sleeping wife, blissfully disconnected from the galaxy around her, drifting through the private world of a dream.
Anakin could barely contain the love he felt at the sight of her. He felt a lump rising in his throat as a single tear traced a line down his cheek.
He leaned over and brushed the smooth skin of her neck with a soft kiss. Anakin breathed deep the faint flowery scent that always lingered about her. Her eyes fluttered open as she drew a breath. Their eyes locked.
Even through this, the simplest of connections, Anakin could feel strength of the love that flowed freely between them. She was an enchantress, bewitching him with her stare. He noticed the soft rise and fall of her chest quickening under the light silk sheet.
"Good morning, Senator…" came his roguishly offered greeting.
She leaned up and kissed him passionately. Relishing the feeling of her warm bare flesh against his chest, Anakin felt as though he would melt into her embrace. He wished they could remain locked in each others arms forever, but all too soon Padmé broke their embrace and turned away. In an instant, her demeanor had changed.
"Anakin," she began, "what have we gotten ourselves into?"
Anakin looked at his wife. She had pulled the sheet back around her. She was picking at a spot on the cover, but Anakin knew she didn't really see the cover at all.
He had anticipated her question—it had been softly calling from the back of his mind as well. They might as well confront it sooner than later, he supposed.
He slid over putting his arms around her. Padmé let herself be pulled into his embrace.
"Padmé," he whispered softly in her ear, "we knew what we would be up against, but we've made our choice. We can--we will--make this work."
"Ani," she turned to look up at him, her hand pleadingly resting on his chest, "we'll have to live a lie. No one can know. How can we possibly keep it up?"
In his heart, Anakin knew she was right. He had known when she first brought it up that night in the lake house. But he knew they could make this work. They had to--he couldn't live without her.
"To only ourselves, must we be true, my love…."
Anakin marveled at his words. To him they sounded superficial and trite, but he knew that in that simple sentiment laid the key to their happiness.
"We can't let anyone find out about this, Anakin. If they do…," she trailed off.
"No one will take you from me, Padmé." He would die before letting Obi-Wan and the Jedi take her away.
Now that Padmé was finally his, Anakin would not lose her so easily.
"Don't worry, our lips will be sealed," he added with a smile, seeing the look of fear on her face.
Anakin's humor seemed to quell, if only a little, the unease that Anakin could sense churning inside of Padmé. She snuggled once more against his body.
Anakin thought again of his new life with the woman now wrapped in his arms. He could feel the anxiety radiating from her, but whereas before it was strong as the ocean waves, it was now reduced to a soft ripple.
He knew that whatever may come, whatever trials they may face, they would at least do so together. Together, he knew they could succeed.
He vowed that whatever dangers might lie ahead, that no matter what it took, he would protect Padmé.
He would protect her.
He laid his chin on the top of her head and breathed deeply, letting her scent fill his lungs once more, drinking deeply of the love flowing between them.
What the future held for them, Anakin did not know. What he did know was that in his arms, he held the most beautiful women he had ever seen, and when they embraced, all of the galaxy's problems seemed to fall away.
And for now, that was enough.