The sun was starting to set and Anakin knew that to get ready for her not-a-date, date, Padme would need to be getting up. After their argument, they had laid down together, to enjoy each other's company. Well, one thing led to another as usually happened when they shared a bed, and now Padme would definitely need time to shower and apply make up to certain areas, depending on the gown she wore.
Part of him was debating not waking her, making it so that she wouldn't have time to properly get ready. But, for one, it would just be rescheduled and it might happen on a night when he was off-planet if he wasn't careful, and for two, that would just be a shitty thing to do to his wife.
"Padme," He gently nudged her, "If you're going to make your… meeting" he started uncomfortably, "You'll need to be getting up soon."
Glancing at the chrono, Padme groaned for a moment, but then her head snapped up and she clutched the bedsheet to her chest. "Soon? Anakin! I should have gotten up twenty minutes ago!"
Anakin enjoyed the view all the way to the fresher as she scurried around, trying to get ready.
He sat in the living room as Moté helped her to get her hair pinned up and when she came down, Anakin's jaw dropped. She looked stunning. Which, if she were dressing up for him, wouldn't have been an issue.
Before he could mention the low cut or the slink of the skirt, she cut him off. "Don't start again. If I had woken up earlier, or if we hadn't indulged in certain activities earlier, I would have had time to have a handmaiden freshly press a different gown. As it is, this is one of the few made of a material that doesn't require pressing. The other two are worse." She smiled sweetly, "I've worn them for you, at the lake house, remember?"
Smiling wolfishly at her, Anakin crossed the distance between them. "I don't suppose it would do to have your make up freshly smeared from a kiss before you open the door?" He didn't allow her time to answer before swooping in for said kiss.
She swatted at him once again that day. "You're so childish." But she drew him in for another one. "If I seem flustered, Clovis is arrogant enough that he'll chalk it up to him being just so handsome that of course it affects me." Padme rolled her eyes. "We didn't have time to think of your cover story for being here when we get back!"
Her intercom pinged to let her know that someone was comming her frequency from the entrance to 500 Republica. "It's okay, I thought it through," Anakin declared as he held out her cloak for her. "I'm installing a new security system. You felt unsafe after your time in that prison cell."
Grinning as she fastened the cloak, Padme turned back to him, "Perfect." She glanced at the door, light still blinking for the comm. "Hey," she started and then laced their fingers together, "I love you, Anakin Skywalker. I married you. I want only you. I have no intention of putting our marriage in jeopardy."
He leaned down to plant a tender kiss to her temple. "I know, Angel. I will never like this plan, but I know."
And he watched her answer the comm with a hasty, "I'll be right down." And then walk out for a date with another man.
Well, if he was going to convincingly install a new security system, he might as well go get a new security system.
As the night pressed on, Padme had to keep repositioning herself so that Clovis didn't have a way to touch her. First her hand, then her shoulder, when he touched her thigh, she didn't bother to reposition herself, she shoved his hand away. That probably wasn't the most delicate way to handle it, but her conversation with Anakin had left her hyper aware of the things that only he should be doing, as her husband.
They reached the lifts to take them to her apartment and she brought the conversation to the data that needed sifting through. She made sure to impress upon him how vital he was to the Republic and to her specifically, in solving this mystery.
"Padme, we've just had a lovely evening out and now I'm being shown to your apartment, must we discuss only work again?" He reached for her hand as the lift doors parted with a slight swoosh.
Deftly moving out of his reach, Padme placed the hand he had been reaching for on the panel outside her door and it chimed open. "Rush, I agree that this has been a lovely evening, but the whole point of tonight was to get to the bottom of this money trail. We've got a lot of work to get through. I think it best that we focus."
She stepped through the doorway and paused. Anakin could be absolutely silent when he felt like it and it seemed as though he felt like it. She couldn't hear him anywhere. This bothered her only because a silent Anakin could be unpredictable.
Feeling Clovis come up behind her, Padme stiffened. At the slightest whisper of his hands on her hips, she stepped away and sat down at the couch in front of the coffee table with the built in holo-projector and chip reader. She called up thee program, "Do you have all of the data chips we need?"
Gracefully crossing the room and taking a seat next to her, too close to her, Clovis reached into his pocket and tossed five chips onto the table. 'Padme, is something wrong? You've been avoiding my advances all night?"
Smiling tightly while inserting the first of the data chips, Padme quipped, "Which, to some men, would be a deterrent from offering more advances."
"Except I know how you feel about me, Padme. There were dozens of senators who could have handled this and yet you chose for it to be you." He leaned in to speak right at her ear, "And I still feel the same for you, too."
Pushing gently at his shoulder to force some distance, and pushing her annoyance down as far as she could, Padme exclaimed, "Rush!"
Just as Anakin walked through the door, wearing his normal Jedi pants and boots, but only a thin, grease-stained undershirt on top, complete with grease smudges on his cheek and hands, seemingly unaware of what he was walking in on. "Senator- oh, I'm sorry?" He asked more than said. "Representative Clovis." He nodded coldly at the man sitting too close to his wife.
"Jedi Skywalker" Clovis nodded back with an attitude slightly above freezing. He turned to Padme, "The Jedi is here?"
Standing and placing herself between the two men, Padme tried to adopt a pleasant, welcoming tone, 'The Jedi is one of my oldest and dearest friends. Anakin is one of the few people whose allegiance I can be absolutely certain of. So when I felt a little out of sorts after spending time in a prison cell, he was the natural choice to ask for assistance with a new security system." Allowing some venom to drip into her voice, she added, "If I recall, Rush, you were with us that day and he saved your life too." She turned to Anakin, "I hope the installation hasn't been too troublesome?"
Trying to choke down the laughter, Anakin had no idea that this could be so thoroughly enjoyable. It was almost worth Padme going on this date. "Not at all, M'lady. As I stated before you left, it works best to install when the residence is empty so that the scans of what undisturbed should look like are more accurate. But I only have the kitchen and this living area left, so as long as you two won't be needing brain food for these data chips," he gestured at the table, "there shouldn't be a problem for at least 45 minutes and then I can wait until you're finished to do my work in here."
Clovis looked perturbed. He gestured toward Anakin, "You mean you've been here this whole time? We've been gone nearly three hours."
Smirking at the discomfort it clearly brought the other man, Anakin continued with his explanation. "Yup, I've been here since you picked her up and I'll be here after you leave. You see, it's a very extensive security system and I'll have to do the scans of this room once Senator Amidala has retired for the evening. I'll activate it as I leave and she can deactivate it from her bedchambers tomorrow."
"I think we can fend for ourselves, should you finish the kitchen before we finish working. Surely you can finish this tomorrow." Clovis grunted sharply.
Sensing that they could go on like this for some time, Padme interjected, "Well, why don't we get started and Anakin, you can get started, and we'll see how the evening shakes out." With that, she sat back down and inserted the first data chip.
From time to time, Padme could hear Anakin tinkering in the kitchen and when she had excused herself to the fresher, there was actually a black box blinking a green light at her from above the door. So he had actually gotten a security system then.
She returned and looked at Clovis and the notes they had amassed. They had only one chip left to go through of the more classified information. The rest they would be free to dig through in bright, open to the world, offices tomorrow.
As if sensing her thoughts, Clovis piped up, "We've only got one chip left. Surely you can send the Jedi home? He's gotten in the way of our evening plans enough."
Smoothing her skirt and reaching for the eject button, Padme turned over her response before she said the words aloud. "I don't know what plans you had for the evening, Rush, but my plans are moving along quite nicely. We've almost finished."
At that moment, Anakin came out of the kitchen, holding a carton of those black boxes. He set it down on the floor and sank into an armchair adjacent to their positions in front of the screen. "I'm all set except for this room."
"Excellent," Clovis remarked, beaming. "Senator Amidala and I were just talking about how you could leave for the night and come back tomorrow to finish."
Nodding menacingly, Anakin retorted, "I'll bet you were."
"Actually," Padme cut across them, my word! Men's egos could be exhausting to dance around, "I was just saying that we're so close to being done and I would really appreciate you staying to finish once we go through this last data set. It won't be more than half an hour, Anakin. Do you mind?"
Anakin answered her question, but smiled at Clovis as he did so, "Not at all, M'lady."
As the final chip was ejected, Padme stood and stretched. Clovis stood as well, but hesitated. Padme scooped up his cloak and motioned to him, "Come, we did great work tonight and I'll see you in the morning. I'll walk you to the door."
As the pair neared the door, Anakin began taking tools out of his carton, but kept his ears trained on the two. He saw Clovis reach for Padme's arm and he would have intervened, but he remembered his own words from earlier: Padme could take care of herself. And if it looked like she couldn't, he could always jump in. He swallowed the temper he'd felt boiling.
"I don't like it. Him still being here so late at night, alone with you."
Padme wrenched her arm out of his grasp. "I don't know what you think is going on between us, Rush, that you would have any say in the matter of who is in my apartment at any hour of the day or night, but you have overstepped your bounds when you try to tell me that I have something to fear from Anakin."
She keyed open the door and gestured through it. "Goodnight, Representative Clovis."
He shrugged into his cloak and walked out of the door with a hmmph.
When the door whooshed closed, Padme sank back against it and briefly closed her eyes, but before she knew it, she felt Anakin's strong arms wrap around her and she clasped her arms around his neck.
"I thought he'd never leave." He began kissing her neck. "You in this dress, showing off how smart you are with all that analyzing you were doing in front of me. Gah! I was going crazy." He nibbled at her jawline. "Do you have any idea how incredibly sexy I find your ability to out-think anyone in any room?" His lips found hers and she responded in kind.
It hadn't been easy to be this close to him, in their home, and not touch him. Gently, she pushed him back, he looked confused and slightly hurt, until she laughed, "Why, Knight Skywalker, I believe you have a security system to finish installing, and then I think something about activating it from the bedroom was mentioned." She winked and slid past him up to the bed chambers.
He laughed and threw a piece of the alarm system over his shoulder and bounded into the room after her.
