Episode III: Attack of the Clones

Chapter 7: Teasing A Senator

Upon arriving at the island, Padme insisted that Anakin carry their brought items off the ship because her "arms were too weak" and didn't "feel like lifting anything."

He knew she was joking, but being the gentleman he was, carried them off for her anyway.

Beyond the beach was a lush grassy field, and beyond that were beautiful roaring waterfalls. She was glad she'd brought her holocamera along. She always enjoyed taking holographic still-images.

As they walked over to the center-most section of the field, she asked Anakin what he thought of the island.

"It's beautiful."

Laying down the sitting blanket, Anakin motioned for her to seat herself before he did. As predicted, all the food that had been brought was eaten in no time.

Abruptly afterwards, Anakin asked, "Did you have any crushes or boyfriends growing up, Padme?"

She was a bit taken aback by the question, but decided to humor him.

"I don't know," she said vaguely. "What do you think?"

"What I think?" he repeated. She nodded. "I'd like to think that you didn't...but I know that's hardly possible."

"Really? Why?" She was curious to know.

"Well, everyone's had at least one crush in life," he explained. "Someone they've met that they like and might have feelings for; rather it be attraction or more."

With a raised eyebrow, she decided to keep up the joke. "Yeah, I was secretly married once to this boy named Palo." She ignored Anakin's gasp of disbelief and continued. "We met in a Legislative Youth Program when I was twelve. He was a few years older than I was, and very cute. Dark curly hair, blue dreamy eyes..."

"This is a joke, right?"

She shook her head. "Nope."

He didn't look convinced. "I may not have the special gift you do in detecting lies, but this just sounds so far-fetched to me."

"Why?"

"Because, it just doesn't make any sense."

"Again, why?"

"For one, if you did secretly marry this guy, Palo," he said the name with a trace of disgust, "why aren't you together anymore and whatever happened to him?"

"He died."

Anakin blinked in confusion. "Died?"

She nodded.

"Why, what happened?"

"A very tragic accident."

After a moment, she continued. "He got stabbed to death by a bunch of gangsters." She gave a sarcastic sniff. "Too bad. If not for that I'm sure we would've had a promising future together."

Anakin was now wearing a smirk. "I still think this is a joke."

She shrugged. "You can think whatever you want; it doesn't change anything. I meanwhile went off into public service."

"A fascinating career choice Padme," he said sarcastically.

"You really don't like politicians do you?" she asked.

"I like two or three," he replied. She raised an eyebrow. "But I'm really not sure about one of them."

She chuckled at Anakin's little quip and he soon followed suit.

"I don't think the system works," he suddenly stated, his tone serious.

"How would you have it work then Anakin?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"I think the politicians should sit down and discuss the problem. Agree with what's in the best interest of all the people, and then do it."

"That's exactly what we do," she explained. "The trouble is the people don't always agree."

"Then they should be made too."

Padme laughed. "By who? Who's going to make them?"

Anakin shrugged. "I don't know. Someone."

"You?!" she asked amusingly.

"Of course not me!"

"But someone?" she pressed.

He nodded. "Someone wise."

Again, she rose an eyebrow. "Sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me."

Anakin merely smirked. "Well, if it works."

Padme slowly turned to look at him, hardly believing what she was hearing, when she saw that it looked as though he was holding back laughter.

"You're making fun of me!" she exclaimed with a laugh.

"No, no! I'd be much to frightened to tease a Senator." He finally let out his laughter and got up, running towards one of the nearby shaaks, a docline herd animal, which inhabited the island.

As she watched him go, she thought to herself. He wasn't really that bad of a guy, she supposed. Yet still...

Looking over at him now, she laughed. He was riding one the shaaks the way a surfer rides the waves of water on a board. Still laughing, she got up and ran over to get a closer look.

He'd been laughing heartily while riding the creature, when suddenly he fell off. Padme waited a few moments, but he didn't get up. He didn't move at all, he just lay there.

She was slightly confused by this. Strolling over to where he was, she asked, "Anakin? Are you alright?"

Upon reaching him, she bent down and rolled him over to find him laughing. Smirking, she playfully punched him in the face, but Anakin continued to laugh and soon she joined in. They rolled around together in the grass for a while and then just laid there with her on top of him, smirking smiles at one another. Suddenly, for a reason she didn't know, Padme bent down and kissed Anakin on his cheek, causing him to blush slightly. Getting up off of him, she held out her hand to him. He took it and she led him over to one of the other shaaks. Secretly using the Force to hold and steady the shaak in place, she and Anakin climbed up onto it and took off.

After riding for about twenty minutes, Padme fell off of the shaak laughing. Anakin jumped off as well and landed on the ground next to her. Jumping up, she ran over to the shore of the waterfalls with Anakin running after her. Once there, she sat down, took her shoes off, and dipped her feet into the cold water. Her Jedi companion sat down next to her and did the same. Being the fact that the waterfalls were so loud, the two of them had to lean in close to each other to hear one another speak. That, or shout.

Eventually growing bored with just sitting, Padme dried her feet on the warm grass and got up. Anakin did the same.

"How about some stills?" she asked, taking out her holocamera.

"Sure, why not?" he replied.

The next few minutes or so were spent with her taking individual shots of him, he taking individual shots of her, and she having him use the Force to have the holocamera take stills of them together.

"That was quite fun exactly," she said at the end of the still-image op, as they were putting their shoes back on.

"Yeah it was," he agreed.

"And you got to show off with your little Jedi tricks," she added teasingly.

Anakin puffed his chest out. "Yeah, well, you know." His attempt at being modest didn't go over that well. It was obvious he was quite pleased with himself for impressing her.

Abruptly, it started to thunder and the sky became filled with dark clouds.

"Looks like it's going to rain," he commented.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, Padme thought sarcastically.

"Well, I suppose not," he replied.

She slowly turned around to look at him; shock evident all across her face. "Did you just read my thoughts Padawan?" she asked sternly.

Anakin quickly looked down. "Well, I-"

"Keep out of my head Skywalker," she snarled angrily, getting up and stalking towards her yacht.

The sky began pouring with rain not long after. Slowing down from her run, Padme stopped to pick up the blanket they'd been using earlier and wrapped it around herself before setting off again. She sensed Anakin running behind her, and when he caught up with her, she saw that he had the picnic basket with him.

At boarding Princess Padme, she answered his unsaid question. "Yes, you may drive the ship back to the house."

They arrived back at the Amidala Lake Estate a few minutes later. Upon descending the ship, Padme saw that her trio of servant girls was waiting for them. The doors were thrown open for them as they approached, followed by Leslie telling them dinner was being prepared and that fresh clothes had been laid out for the both of them.

Nodding in thanks, they went to their own separate rooms to change, Anakin being led to his room by Lizzie.

After changing into the black leather dress that was picked out for her and putting her hair in a elegant, braided ponytail, Padme turned her computer on, uploaded all the still-images that were taken from earlier, and printed them off. She then went to see Anakin in his room. However, he wasn't there, so she reached out for his Force signature and found it in the living room downstairs. Sure enough, that's where she found him, sitting on the sofa watching Holovision. It was a sports channel from the looks of it.

"Hello," she greeted him.

"Hi," he said waving, but not looking at her. He was too preoccupied watching a Podrace that was blaring on the HV screen.

She sat down next to him. "Well, I ran off all the stills from earlier if you'd like to see them," she said handing him the folder.

"Oh um sure," he said still not looking at her, his eyes glued to the HV screen.

"Listen, if you think I'm still mad about the whole 'you reading my mind thing' I'm not," she said to him, knowing full well that that would get his attention away from the Holovision.

It did. "Look, I'm really sorry about that," he said with a shy smile.

"It's alright. Now the photos?" She once again held out the folder.

He took them with a smile.

"Milady?"

Padme looked up to see Lizzie standing in the entrance of the living room.

"Is the food ready?" the Sith asked.

"Yes milady."

"Good."

She and Anakin proceeded to follow Lizzie out the room and into the glamorous dining hall.

"Thank you Lizzie, but we can serve our own selves," she said before Lizzie could even speak.

"Of course milady." She bowed herself out the room.

For dinner, they had Kommerken steak with biscuits and vegetables. For desert they had fruit.

During the meal, Padme asked Anakin to tell her some more of his exciting Jedi adventures. He happily obliged.

"And so when we got to them," he was saying at the beginning of dessert. "We went into aggressive negotiations. Thank you," he added for Dorme had just placed another piece of fruit on his plate.

He's such the gentleman. All I do is nod my head at them. I never thank them.

Padme got back to the current topic. "Aggressive negotiations? What's that?" she asked confused.

"Oh well, negotiations with a lightsaber."

"Oh!" This exclamation was followed by a laugh.

Drawing her attention to her fruit, she was just about to cut into it when suddenly it flew into the air towards Anakin. She gave him a confused look.

Catching the fruit in hand, he placed it on his plate and said, "If Master Obi-Wan caught me doing this, he'd be very grumpy," while cutting a singular slice off. He then flew the slice of pear back over to her, and she caught it with her fork before eating it with a smirk. Anakin smiled back.

"Thank you Anakin, but I do think I can eat the rest on my own."

He nodded, still smiling, and flew the pear back over to her.