Anakin felt awful.

Unlike his master, he had never succeeded in the all night meditation. Where Obi-Wan had always found it refreshing, Anakin just found it draining. After six hours of failing to find peace, he had finally gone to the archives to conduct research.

Now, as he was used to, he wandered in the direction of the Room of a Dozen Fountains, as he called the indoor garden. There, at least, he could find peace and solace. Perhaps he could meditate a bit as well.

But when he rounded the corner, he saw her sitting there, feet in the water and a look of bliss on her face.

Of course.

"Duchess. I should have expected you to be here."

She didn't even look up. "So you know who I am."

He came and sat down beside her. "Since this morning." What did one say to a Duchess? "I apologize for not recognizing you earlier. I'm afraid I've been very out of touch."

Her eyebrow twitched, as if she was resisting the urge to raise it. "I take no offense. I fear that very few people outside of the political circle recognize me."

She was being kind, he knew. As soon as he had typed in Padmé's name, hers had come up right beside it.

But he could sense she didn't want to talk about that, so he decided to probe her knowledge. "May I ask you a question?"

"You may, though whether or not I choose to answer is at my own will."

So, feisty. He decided to play it safe. "The man who was with you… he was a Jedi, correct?"

Her blue eyes registered the surprise that he sensed. "Yes, he was. How…?"

Shavit. He hadn't though that far ahead. "Before the crash, he tried to make contact with us," he said slowly, trying to stick as close to the truth as he could. "I recognized his voice."

Her eyes lit, the cloud of sorrow lifting slightly. "You knew Obi?"

Obi. She'd definitely been close to him. Likely closer than he had ever gotten. Not as if he had ever really tried. "We crossed paths a few times years ago," he replied evasively. "He was a great man."

The sorrow grew. "He was."

"I don't think I've ever met someone as devoted to anything as he was to the Jedi." That was entirely true. Obi-Wan had always been the complete opposite of himself. "It could be annoying at times, but I admired him for it."

"It was impossible not to," she agreed, looking away again. "Even if you might hate him for it."

He blinked. That was a bit harsh. "You know him well, then?"

Her cheeks grew slightly pinker. "I… he was sent to me when I was younger, and we became… close." She smiled at some unknown memory. "We didn't see each other for, oh, almost twelve years, when I ran across him at Padmé's apartment after his padawan's death. We've been friends ever since."

Anakin sucked in a breath. "You knew his apprentice?"

"No, I never met him," she confessed, and he relaxed slightly. "It's funny, I don't even have the slightest clue what he even looked like." That was good. That was really good. "The only holo I've ever seen of him was when he was ten. All the other ones were locked up after his death. Did you know him?"

He almost laughed. "Yes, I saw him a couple of times." In a mirror, perhaps.

She turned to him, immediately interested. "What was he like? Obi never wanted to talk about him, and Padmé always broke down in tears whenever I mentioned him."

He put away the thought of Padmé crying about him. She likely was only upset that she hadn't been able to get him into her bed. "He was a boy," he began slowly, trying to think of how he saw himself then. "Mischievous, arrogant, passionate, reckless. Not exactly the ideal Jedi." He smiled. Not even close to the ideal Jedi. "It seemed like every few minutes Ma… Master Kenobi was lecturing him on something."

He mentally cursed the slip up, but she didn't seem to notice it. "That sounds right."

No, no, no. They needed to get off of this subject, and fast. "Wait, what's your name again?"

"Kryze. Satine Kryze of Kalevala," she replied, her confusion at the sudden change of subject clear. "And yours?"

"Ah, that would be right." He laughed, purposefully ignoring her question. "I should have guessed you were like that." He already had, but that didn't matter.

"Like what?"

He couldn't keep back the smirk. "Master… Kenobi's lover." Another slip up, but she didn't notice, her cheeks becoming red.

"Why would you say that?"

"He always had a thing for girls with blonde hair and blue eyes. Especially ones whose names started with the 's' sound." So he wasn't being entirely truthful, but it was interesting to see the ire rise in her eyes.

"Really?"

"Yep. Let me see, there was his first girl, Cerasi, when he was about fourteen, but she died." Never mind that she had red hair and green eyes. "Then there was Siri, who was he was on and off with since they were about seventeen. I remember a girl named Sadira, though it turned out that her hair was bleached." And she'd been about twelve, following him around like a lost puppy until he finally talked to her parents about it. "There were a few others, too, but I can't recall them all from the top of my head. He was quite the ladies man." He was, but only the unrequited love of all the women.

The Duchess seemed to believe him, though, her face darkening. "Indeed."

"So you guys were like that?" She didn't seem to be one of the type of women who fell for Obi-Wan's pretty words and manners, but one could enver know.

Her cheeks grew even redder, and she shook her head. "No." When he continued to stare at her, she groaned. "We were teenagers, loaded with hormones, left alone for a year."

Wait… what? "Really? You guys actually did the dirty?"

She wrinkled her brow. "What were you expecting?"

He hadn't been. His Master, stuffy old Obi-Wan? Self proclaimed celibate? Getting in bed with a woman? Impossible. "A kiss, maybe. I mean, Mas…" there, he had done it again. "Obi-Wan may have flirted with every blonde he saw," not exactly true, "but he never took them to bed. He always seemed too… he wasn't like that." What she had implied suddenly hit him, and he smiled in amusement. "You thought I was saying he slept with all those women?"

She was completely red now, and she looked back down. "No," she muttered, pulling her feet out of the water.

She had thought it. He laughed. "You don't have much trust in your boyfriend, do you?"

"No… I mean, yes, but he's not my…"

He laughed again. "Fine, then, lover." He rose, grinning as he offered her a hand. "Breakfast will be ready soon. It was good speaking to you, Duchess."

And as she mumbled a good day, he knew it would be.


Anakin was just about to climb into bed for a pre-breakfast nap when his comm unit went off.

He groaned, using the force to flick it on. "Hello?"

"I hope I'm not interupting anything, Master," Colier said from the other end of the line.

"No, nothing." Except for his nap. "I suppose you're calling about the wreck?"

"Yes, Master. It seems that the ship crashed relatively close to Kle, and several of the men on duty there were able to contain the blast. They also managed to tear the cockpit off of the body before the explosion."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He was fading, fast.

"Meaning they were able to evacuate the male passenger before the ship combusted."

Obi-Wan. He sat up. "How is he?"

"It doesn't look good, Master. Ahsoka hasn't been able to stabilize him, and we've nearly lost him twice in the past hour." He exhaled. "Ahsoka says we need to bring him back there and into the clinic, but she's afraid we'll lose him if we try to move him."

"I'll come there. Ask her what she needs, and I'll bring it with me."

"Yes, Master. Anything else?"

He hesitated. "Yes, actually. Can you tell your brother to come back here? I need someone to keep our guests out of trouble in my absence."


He was exhausted.

Anakin had arrived at the village of Kle only minutes before Obi-Wan had once again drifted too close to the land of the dead. With the help of the force, he and Ahsoka had been able to revive him and keep him stable long enough to hook him up to life support. They'd been able to breath easier then, but the sight of his Master's bruised and broken body was emotionally draining.

It had been late when he'd finally left the tiny clinic. It would have been better if they could bring him back to the palace clinic, with it's extensive equipment and bacta tank, but even he knew that trying to move the man would be impossible.

So, he had walked back to the Capital, only a few kilometers away and yet feeling like it was on the other side of the planet.

But now, he was home, and he flopped back onto his bed. Sleep was all he wanted now. Sleep and food.

At the thought of food, his stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before.

That wouldn't do at all.

Dragging himself out of bed, he made his way towards the kitchens, where Chantay, the cook, always had something for him. And this time was no exception.

Ten minutes later, he was seated on a stool with a roll in one hand, a nuna leg in the other, and a collosal bowl of thick, steaming stew in front of him. Exactly what he needed to fill the seemingly endless cavern of his stomach.

He was halfway through when the door to the kitchens opened, and Matri came in. When he saw Anakin, he nodded. "Master."

Anakin nodded, swallowing. "Matri. How were our guests?"

"Excellent, although the Senator did ask after you a few times. I made sure to relay to her that you would be meeting her."

He stifled a groan. He had told her to wait up for him, hadn't he? Stupid, stupid Anakin. "Thank you, Matri. She's waiting for me, then?"

"I believe so, Master. She was watching for you at the window for a while, but she went into the library a few minutes ago." He grinned. "She is a pretty little thing, isn't she?"

A streak of white hot anger raced through him, and he glared at the younger man. "She doesn't like men like you." Did she? He had not the slightest idea.

Matri's eyes shuttered. "Of course, most women appreciate the mysterious warrior over the abused slave boytoy."

Kriff. It had taken him two years to get the boy to believe he truly didn't see him as the male prostitute his slave Master had used him as. "That's not what I meant. I simply meant she prefers blondes."

"Right." He looked at some spot on the wall. "Are you going back tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Good night, Master."

Not for the first time, he wished he could somehow change the title that had been bestowed on him. It felt wrong for an ex-slave to call him Master, just as it did for all the people he interacted with. But as long as he chose to hide his identity, that was going to be the reactio from all of them.

He sighed, going to finish his now cold stew.


With plodding steps, he entered the library, only to hear voices already there.

"...wish to remain chaste?"

What?

"I don't know." That was Padmé. "Right now, yes."

"But?"

"That's right now, when there's no one to tempt me." He stepped back. No one? What was he, then?

"I know how that feels. Before I met… him… I thought I would be fine being a virgin my whole life." Why had she hesitated to say his name? Unless… "And since he died, I'm once again content with not engaging in amorous relations. But if another would come upon the scene that I should feel similarly for, I don't know."

"Would you want to feel the same for someone else?"

"No. What we had was sacred, and I… I promised him he was my only." The air was sadder now, and he wouldn't have been surprised if she was crying. "I don't want to break that promise. Even though he is dead, I don't want to tarnish his memory."

Finally, a woman of some morals. Was permanent celibacy of ones significant post death to much to ask? Although, Obi-Wan wasn't dead. Yet.

"Even though Anakin and I never got that far, I feel the same," Padmé confessed, and he scoffed. Of course she did. "But now…" See, there it was. "I think that being completely separated from the male species may not have been the wisest of actions." So she had been sleeping with women too, since he was gone? Utterly disgusting. "The slightest touch of a man is enough to set me on fire. Or maybe… maybe I'm hitting that mid life period."

He heard a short, sharp laugh that could only have been the Duchess's. "I hope not. I have yet to hit mine, and you are already hitting yours, that doesn't speak well of the length of your life."

"Then what is it? I have been perfectly able to remain unattracted and detached from every man I've met over the past three years." Yeah, right. "Why is everything changing now? And with a perfect stranger, whose name is as much of a mystery as his face?"

You'd be surprised at how well you know me.

"Whoever knows why we're attracted to those we don't even care for? Why we fall in love, if it almost always leads to heartbreak?"

All too true. He stepped out from behind the bookshelf, relishing the look of surprise Padmé gave him. "Words of wisdom. Listen to your friend, my pet." She sucked in a breath as he knelt beside her, caving to the desire to trace her jawline with his hand. "Or your heart will be broken."


Does anyone else think Anakin has judgement problems where Padmé is concerned?

Thank you to Jedi Master Megan for following and favoriting!

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