Always Be Here For You:

D83/20 BBY, Coruscant

Ahsoka strode through the hallways, almost running, aiming for the nearest exit, wanting, needing, fresh air. She was trembling with suppressed outrage and sorrow combined. Tears were trickling down her cheeks, unheeded.

How DARE the Council treat her like that?

And how dare SHE do that to poor Anakin?

She could feel his shock and grief even now, trickling through their bond even though he was trying to hide it from her. From himself as well, she bet.

Her head was down and her arms were wrapped around herself as she moved, following a path she knew by familiarity as opposed to sight. Too many times she and Anakin had been called into the Council chamber to make reports or get scolded for something or other. Too many times she'd walked these hallways, almost always with Anakin at her side as they waited to get outside before complaining too each other about the latest annoyance the Council had put them through.

Now she was alone.

And it hurt.

She was so centered on her own misery she didn't feel his presence until she was literally on top of him and his hands came to rest on her shoulders, stopping her forward momentum. "Ahsoka! Are you okay? What happened?"

Ahsoka looked up into Lux's sympathetic, concerned, and caring silver and storm cloud eyes and basically broke down, no longer able to contain all her emotions with someone there to share them with her.

She threw her arms around his waist and buried her face in his shoulder, shoulders shaking with sobs.

Lux wrapped his arms around her, heart breaking for her, and held her as close to him as dared. He met the mask of the Temple Guard who had escorted him this far and nodded his head slightly, indicating a thanks and that he didn't need an escort anymore.

The Guard nodded back and politely left them alone.

Lux shuffled them over to a nook in the wall behind a column for a little more privacy and then just rubbed her back soothingly while she cried, making little shussshing sounds.

He couldn't help but notice that she was positively filthy from her montrals down and there was a rather unpleasant odour wafting from her clothes, but he didn't care. This was the first time he'd legitimately had her in his arms and he wasn't going to push her away just because she hadn't been given a chance to bathe in days. He flinched mentally to think what she'd gone through and the places she'd been to get so grimy. He'd seen her come back from battles looking better than this.


Anakin power walked down the halls, looking for Ahsoka. He could feel her near and he NEEDED to talk to her. Out of instinct, he was making his way towards their usual quick exit from the Temple. "Ahsoka?" he called, sensing her really close now, but not seeing her.

A lightly cleared throat made Anakin skid to a stop and whirl around. He took in the sight of Ahsoka huddled into Lux's form and blinked in surprise and then slight embarrassment. "Oh," Anakin said softly.

Lux's mouth quirked and he shrugged ever so slightly.

Anakin glanced at the door only a metre away and Lux nodded in understanding. Anakin left them alone and walked outside. He sat down on a step with his back against a pillar and waited, all the while trying to figure out how to make this complete disaster of a mess better.

He wasn't having much luck.


Ahsoka froze when she heard Anakin call her name and then tried to hide in Lux. It didn't work of course, but her tears dried up mighty quick from the embarrassment of being caught having an emotional breakdown and hugging Lux.

She pulled back a little and swiped the remaining tears off her cheeks with a hand, then looked up at Lux.

Lux looked back down at her with a gentle smile, his hand rising as well to try and help with the mess her face was. His mouth quirked in apologetic amusement. "You've just smeared the dirt lines around."

Ahsoka shook her head ruefully. "I feel disgusting. And I've made you all filthy too. Sorry, Luxi." She couldn't help but notice that they still had one arm each around the other in a loose hug and how incredibly nice it felt. She had no desire to move away. If anything, she wanted to snuggle back into his chest and just close her eyes and fall asleep against his strength. It had been so very long since she'd slept properly, but now that the nightmare was over and she felt safe again, her exhaustion was starting to weigh her down.

Lux glanced down at his tunic and chuckled, seeing the streaks of dirt that had transferred from her clothes to his. "They're just clothes. They'll wash. And since it's dirty anyway..." He grabbed the bottom hem of his tunic and raised it to clean the worst of the tear streaks off her face as gently as he could.

Ahsoka was speechless as she was treated to the sight of Lux's chest and abdomen muscles, barely feeling the fine cloth on her cheeks. For a politician, he was incredibly well defined. She knew he trained so he could fight if he had to, but she just hadn't quite realized that he'd trained that dedicatedly. Ahsoka was impressed. And turned on, she realized, as she felt a wave of heat sweep through her. That was new. And not unwelcome, since it gave her troubled mind something else to dwell on.

The hem of his shirt dropped back down, hiding his golden skin from view, and Ahsoka blinked as she looked back up and into Lux's eyes again.

Lux's breath caught as he saw something in her beautiful blue eyes that he'd never seen from her before; something he'd felt for her since the first day he'd met her and she'd told him to, 'Look at me. I'm not so bad, am I?' Ahsoka was looking at him with genuine desire.

FINALLY.

Thank the stars, finally. She finally got it. He was so tempted to kiss her right now. So tempted. His head even lowered a fraction before he stopped himself.

But now wasn't the time. Her Master was waiting just outside the door and she'd just gone through some sort of traumatizing experience that he couldn't even begin to fathom. He'd never seen her cry before. Never.

Sad. Happy. Mischievous. Exhausted. Angry. Fuming even to the point of almost visible steam.

But never cry.

Who had dared break his spirited and feisty Ahsoka? Lux was already not happy with them, whoever they were. But he could come up with two likely guesses: The Jedi Council and the Senate Tribunal. He wished he could make them pay, but both were basically untouchable. And he was just a low level Senator in his first year of service. His power with his peers was about nil. It was incredibly frustrating.

Lux stroked the back of his fingers down her cheek, following the white marking, squeezing his other arm around her slender back at the same time. He smiled at her, eyes telling her to hold that thought for later.

Ahsoka's breath caught at the feel his fingers on her skin in such a gentle caress, leaning into it. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn't going to get a kiss just then, but she understood that this really wasn't a good time or place to have her first proper kiss. (That forced kiss on Carlac didn't count.) She sighed softly in regret and banked the sudden desires swimming through her for when they were actually alone. And she was clean. Clean was good. Poor Lux did not need to kiss a stink ball. She shuddered in her next breath and stepped back, however reluctantly, her hand trailing around his waist before she forced herself to drop it to her side.

"Thank you, Lux," Ahsoka said softly. "You're amazing, you know that?"

Lux grinned. "You are too, Soka." He glanced at the door and his expression fell into something more serious. "Your Master is waiting for you. I'll wait here for you, if you want."

Ahsoka reached up and cupped his jaw, letting him see her yearning in her eyes. "I want," she whispered.

Lux caught her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm, watching her eyes dilate and her breath catch. "Then I'll wait forever, if need be," he whispered back before squeezing her fingers gently and then letting her hand go.

Ahsoka clenched her fingers around her tingling palm and tried to steady her suddenly racing heart. "It won't be that long, I promise."

She didn't wait to see if he had any more responses to that, spinning on her foot and marching towards the door before she could throw herself back into his arms.

Why, why, why hadn't she pursued her feelings for him sooner? She'd followed that stupid no attachments code for nothing. It's not like Anakin wasn't breaking it. And Obi-Wan had for a while too, she was sure, with Duchess Satine. Why had she let it stop her from having her own lover too?

Still berating herself, Ahsoka sank onto the step beside Anakin and pressed herself close to his side, lending and taking support as they both sat in silence for a couple of minutes and stewed in their depressing thoughts.

Without looking at her, just staring down at her Silka beads that he was waterfalling from hand to hand, Anakin finally blurted out, "Why are you doing this? Why are you leaving me?"

Ahsoka was watching her beads in studied fascination, since she couldn't quite bring herself to look at him either. "I'm not leaving YOU. I'm leaving the Order and those nitwits in there. The Council didn't trust me, didn't believe in me, so why should I continue to fight for them? Why should I continue to follow a code that I don't believe in anymore?"

Anakin finally looked down at her, his blue eyes anguished. "What about me? I believed in you. I stood by you."

Ahsoka looked back up at him, sending all her regret to him over their bond and nudged a little closer into his side. "I know you believe in me, Anakin, and I'm grateful for that. But this isn't about you. I can't stay here any longer. Not now."

Anakin turned slightly and grabbed her shoulders in desperation. "The Jedi Order is your life; you can't just throw it away like this. Ahsoka, you are making a mistake."

Ahsoka reached up and cupped his cheeks in her hands, holding him just as tightly as he was her as their eyes locked. "Maybe," she admitted. "But I have to sort this out on my own. Without that blasted Council and maybe even without you."

Anakin let her go with a resigned sigh and they both watched the traffic fly by without really seeing it. "But you can figure out your life with Lux's help?"

Ahsoka flicked her eyes up at him for a moment at the hurt in his voice. "Maybe. That's one of the things I need to figure out."

Anakin huffed a pathetic sounding snort. "I understand," he said almost under his breath. "More than you realize, I understand wanting to walk away from the Order." He sounded torn from the inside out about it.

Ahsoka nudged him with her shoulder until he looked at her. "I know."

His brows drew together as he looked at her in perplexion. "What?"

Ahsoka smirked conspiratorially, wiggling her eyebrow markings up and down in a suggestive fashion. "I know about you and Padme," she whispered, almost just mouthing the words, in case the Temple walls had grown ears.

Anakin's eyes widened in alarm and then he started laughing. Quietly at first, but soon he was full on guffawing with tears running from his eyes.

Ahsoka smiled to herself, pleased that she'd managed to improve his mood, and waited for him to calm down.

Anakin eventually wiped his eyes and shook his head at her. "Only you, Snips. Only you could make such a serious confession and turn it into something fun."

Ahsoka grinned and bumped her shoulder into his teasingly. "Someone had to lighten the mood. You were getting too dark and gloomy for my liking."

"And that right there. That's why you can't leave me, Ahsoka. You know I need your light to keep me on track," he said very seriously.

"And I'm saying it again, since you obviously didn't hear me the first time. I'm. Not. Leaving. YOU, you nerfherder. Just the Order and this building. Annnnnd maybe Coruscant, depending on what happens with Lux." She blushed a little, just saying that, and Anakin cleared his throat in discomfort. "But what I'm trying to say is that I'll always be here for you, Master. Always. All you have to do is comm me and I'll talk to you, day or night. And if you need help, I'll be here for you as fast as I can get to you. I promise. And the Order can go hang if they don't like it," she finished with adamantly.

'Snips," he breathed in relief before enveloping her in a hug. Ahsoka hugged him back, relieved to be past the almost fight. He pulled back after half a minute and wrinkled his nose at her. "I know it's not your fault, and I'm not one to talk, but kriff, Ahsoka, you stink."

Ahsoka scrunched her face up at him in return. "Tell me about it. I feel like a walking dumpster." She shuddered in as exaggerated a fashion as she could. "I repulse even myself."

"Lux didn't seem too repulsed," Anakin teased.

Ahsoka blushed again, thankful her colouring didn't show it. "Ummmmm."

Anakin chuckled and stood up, pulling her up with him, then pocketing her Silka beads. "Come on, Snips. Let's ditch this joint. I heard something about Padme inviting you over. I'm sure she won't mind a couple more."

Ahsoka glanced at him sideways. "Especially when one of the party crashers is so... familiar to her and welcome in her... apartment anytime."

Anakin stared at her for her audacity and then laughed again. "I don't know how you managed to keep the fact that you knew under wraps for who knows how long."

"It was a terrible struggle," Ahsoka admitted teasingly. "All those missed opportunities for ribbing you and I had to keep my mouth shut. I like this much better."

"I have a feeling I won't," Anakin muttered as they stuck their heads in the door.

Ahsoka poked him in the ribs playfully then looked over at Lux. "Come on, Lux. We're going to Padme's."

Lux lit up, happy to see that the two of them were on good terms and that he was getting included in whatever Ahsoka's plans were. He walked over to them and handed Anakin the data chip before he forgot it in his pocket indefinitely.

Anakin stared at the chip for a moment before he remembered what it was for. A flash of anger went through him as he remembered Barriss' treachery, but he funnelled it away, not wanting to dwell on negatives anymore. "Thanks, Lux," he said as he pocketed the data chip. "We'll drop this off..." He paused as another thought occurred to him. "You know what? I have something else to do first. You two wait outside for me and I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Okay," Ahsoka said as she watched her Master stride back towards the High Council chamber. Now she was worried about what he was up to. She'd seen that set look to his shoulders and jaw before and sometimes it meant trouble. Okay, more than sometimes. More like almost always. "Just don't do anything stupid," she called to his back.

"Me? Stupid? Never!" Anakin called back, laughter echoing down the hallway.

Shaking her head at her Master's blatant untruth, Ahsoka linked her arm through Lux's and pulled him outside and back to the same set of steps that she'd just been sitting on with Anakin.

They settled onto the top step and she kept her arm linked through his and rested her head on his shoulder.

Lux looked down at her in surprise then extracted his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders and pulled her closer.

Ahsoka's eyes closed as a sense of peace finally settled in her soul and she yawned widely, winding her arms around his lean waist. "I know you have a million questions, Luxi, and I promise I'll answer them, but until Anakin gets back, I'm just going to sleep a little," she mumbled into his tunic.

"That's okay, Soka," he said softly, seeing the exhaustion on her face now that she let it show. "Just sleep."

She yawned again, rubbed her face against his shoulder until she found just the right spot, and then she was out.

Lux gazed down at her in adoring awe that she trusted him enough to sleep against him. Daringly, he pressed a kiss to a clean spot on her montral, and then he just basked in the wonder of having her wrapped around him and safe and sound and not imprisoned or executed.