Stroking her hair between her fingers, Padmé gently unwound the complicated braid Sabè had helped her weave for what had started out as a regular Senate session. It had turned into a nearly seven hour long shouting match that had seen two –or was it three? She had lost count- vital contracts between the Republic and certain planetary systems dissolve.

The Senator had long since instructed her friend and assistant to leave, hoping for a peaceful, quiet evening in her lavish apartments. She would, doubtlessly, get lonely at a later point, but at present she had no desire to talk to anyone except perhaps-

Well, it was no use thinking about him. Fighting a war, one she so often felt powerless to prevent, as reminded by the meetings during the afternoon when she had watched the representative from Lifá storm out of the great chambers, off the planet, and back to his sprawling farmlands of a home which would, sooner or later, become just another place to pit a constantly shrinking number of clones against the cheap-to-manufacture droids.

"I wonder if it's worth it." She stared despairingly into the mirror. "Am I even doing anything?"

"Well, you're looking good for the HoloNets."

Padmé let out a small scream and spun around with the full intent to summon the Coruscant Protection Force, only to see Anakin lazing against the smooth walls. With a smirk he said, "You look beautiful when you're talking to yourself. And, for that matter, all the other times." He quickly closed the distance between the two of them.

She put a hand over her heart, feeling its painfully fast beat against her palm, and tried to slow her breath. "You shouldn't come here so… unexpectedly, Anakin! I could have had company."

"I knew you didn't." He toyed lightly with her hair, smoothing the final snarls out with a surprisingly gentle touch, for such calloused fingers. "I'm only on planet for tonight. I figured my entrance should be… memorable. Besides," that coy smile appeared again, "it's your own fault for not shutting the doors on the veranda."

"I like the breeze at night. And I do shut them, before I go to bed." She could breathe easily enough to appreciate his presence. "And anyways, would that have stopped you from dropping out of the sky?"

"Of course not." He pulled her up from the vanity stool she had been sitting on and began kissing her. "Then again, a war couldn't stop me. Doors are nothing."

"Mmm." She returned his affections, letting the day's events slip into the back of her mind, although even as the kisses turned into more and her heart began to race again, she was always aware that the worries existed.

******

Later they lay together in twisted sheets, Anakin's fingers dancing down her back. "I saw you today," he murmured, "on the HoloNews. Talking about the war, and playing Senator."

"Let's not discuss the war." Padmé only heard him mention the war at first, and so it was a few seconds after the statement was made that she really realized what he had said. She craned her neck to look into his eyes, mindful of the scar that traced across his right one. "Playing Senator?" She let out a small laugh so he wouldn't think she was overreacting to his words. "What does that mean?"

"Well, you know." He met her gaze. "You're my wife. You're Padmé."

"And I'm a Senator… right?" She wasn't sure why his words had stuck out to her, but something about them didn't seem… right. After all, wasn't that who she was?

He shrugged as best he could, while still rubbing her shoulders. "Not to me. To everyone else, I guess so."

"Why? Why not to you?" She hoped she didn't anger him –there few moments together couldn't be spoilt by that- but it still didn't make sense.

"You're my wife. That's all that matters." He lay down on his back, gently pulling her onto his chest. "I should get some sleep. I'm off to some backwater planet tomorrow…" She didn't protest as he folded his hands over her stomach and rested his head next to hers.

Eventually, his breathing slowed and she wriggled out of his grasp. Quietly she whispered, "It isn't playing if it's real."

Predictably, there was no response.

A/n: This was inspired by a line in Karen Traviss's novelization of the Clone Wars, where there is a line which goes something like this: "Anakin smiled as he watched Padmé play Senator before a group of people…" I'm paraphrasing –I don't actually have the book with me- but you get the idea. That quote really stood out to me because it seemed horribly inaccurate, but it made me wonder, what would Padmé think if she knew of that view?