Coruscant city center, five months before the Massacre
Padmé is 21; Anakin is 19
The last time she sees him, she is 21, he is 19, and she feels invincible. She has been officially sworn in as senator of Naboo, and she can't stop grinning. It's silly, really to be this happy-she's been a junior senator for years and this had all but been official years before, but the realness of it all makes her feel giddy. Bail takes her to dinner that night in celebration, but she still feels the buzzing in her veins. Anakin laughs at her when she tells him-"I've never seen anyone so excited about a lifetime of politics"-and her half-hearted smack only makes him laugh harder, eyes bright, a crinkle at the corner of his lips she'd like to kiss. She won't of course, because not even becoming a senator has made her that brave, though she's considered it more than she should admit. It does, however, make her brave enough to ask him to go out with her that night. (It's a group," she tells him, "a bunch of politicians-you'd love it"). He agrees easily, and she thinks maybe they're both a little brave when she coaxes him into wearing something she calls civilian and Anakin calls ridiculous. (It's pants and a shirt, hardly different than what he wears normally sans cloak, tabard, and the thing he claims is an obi-really the layers are ridiculous.) She figures the teasing goes hand in hand with him saying yes, so she just grins at him.
The club is loud and dark, and she has to shout to be heard, but the pulsing hum of the music matches the thrum in her veins. Her friends scatter when they arrive, and she is left to slide her hand into Anakin's and tug him after her.
The night passes in a blur. She dances with her friends, which Anakin declines with a smile, as he does to her offer of a drink. He does watch her through, eyes dark and face still. Her friend, a secretary in Bail's office she's known for ages, follows her gaze as they dance. "Where'd you dig him up? He's gorgeous!"
"He's a friend," she shouts, loud enough to be heard over the music. The words taste strange in her mouth, but she finishes, "from home. When we were kids."
She doesn't feel much like dancing after that, and he follows without comment when she leads him to a row of chairs beside the stage. She spends the rest of the evening consciously not touching him, but his warmth bleeds across the space between them and she can feel his eyes on her.
He walks her home that night, hands in his pockets, and even though she's tempted, she doesn't thread her arm through his. She thinks she's used enough bravery for one night.
Except not, apparently, because she has enough left that when he stops outside her door, the humming in her head reaches a peak and then everything stills. She goes up on her toes to kiss him (she forgets, sometimes, how impossibly large he is), right where his smile hides in the corner of his lips. It lingers a moment, and he is stiff and still and she closes her eyes so she can't see his face until she drops down.
"Goodnight Anakin," she tells him, and closes her door before he can respond. She has used up what's left of her bravery for tonight.
She doesn't see him for 7 years. He leaves the morning after she kisses him for the first time with Obi-Wan on some sort of mission. She gets this information from Palpatine-the Jedi are close lipped, but the Chancellor cares for Anakin and he's always had a soft spot for her, so he is free with information when she asks. She is angry that he hadn't bothered to leave her a message, that he would have had the audacity to be afraid of her (of them, of this), but when Bail passes her his datapad with a raised eyebrow and a "have a good evening?" she suddenly understands. The picture isn't a terribly good one-the lighting is bad and Anakin is almost out of the frame, and the caption is about the music and not them, but her mouth goes dry and the humming starts again (and this is even more ridiculous) and she swears she can taste him. Bail is gracious enough not to say anything else, just takes the datapad back when she doesn't say anything, and turns the conversation to the senate committee hearing later that afternoon. (She saves the picture later, in the darkness of her apartment. It is the only one she ever has of him.)
