A/N: Shoutout to the follows, favorites and reviews, they all make me super happy. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story, I'm only mildly worried about this chapter because I tried to find a scene, any scene, where Anakin and Padme flirt, but I could not find a good one. So their flirting isn't great, but it's a little better than talking about sand. Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter and stick around for the next ones cause I'm excited.

Summary: Padme Amidala built bridges with people, especially with her 4th grade students. When new student Ahsoka joins her class, she is ready to start building a bridge to the young girl. Anakin Skywalker doesn't trust easily, especially when his little sister is involved. But he's drawn to the 4th grade teacher and willing to trust Padme with the darker battles his family is facing.

Chapter Two

FRIDAY

Padme stood outside on the sidewalk under the burgundy awning beside her last student, Ahsoka. It was Friday afternoon, carpool would be over in roughly ten minutes which meant that after school care would begin. Normally Padme dreaded the idea of having to do after school care without warning, but she wasn't too upset as a little bubble of hope grew in her.

Since two of Ahsoka's brothers showed up on time or early, Padmé suspected that the fourth brother would be making an appearance and she couldn't deny that thought made her happy. Three days had passed since she had met Anakin Skywalker and he had wandered into her mind more often than she cared to admit.

Growing up Padme had never been boy crazy or gone through that phase where boys were the only thing on her mind. Her older sister Sola hadn't really either. Padmé has boyfriends in high school and two in college, but they didn't lead anywhere. It made her only mildly wonder if this could leave somewhere. The clock struck 3:30 soon enough, which meant it was time for Padme to bring Ahsoka back inside while they waited for her brother to arrive.

"Do you know who's getting you," Padme asked her student.

Ahsoka shook her head, but she didn't say anything and slipped her hands into her white jean pockets.

Today had been another quiet day for Ahsoka. It seemed there would be random days that Ahsoka wouldn't be her usually bright and talkative self, where she fell further in the background instead of being right at the center. On the one it could just be that some days she had more energy than others which was entirely possible, but Padme felt it was something more. Call it teacher intuition.

"Well let's head back to the classroom to wait for which ever brother appears," Padme said with a kind grin.

Ahsoka returned the smile, as they started walking she asked, "Do you think we could play Space Chess?"

Padmé's smile widened, "I'd love to. It's my favorite game to play."

"Cody likes to play it a lot, he's really good at it to. He almost never loses," Ahsoka said, feeling more chatty as they made their way down the hall, "I'm going to beat him one day. Rex says I just have to practice more."

Padme nodded, "Wise words."

"He can be pretty wise, but I'd say Obi Wan has the most wisdom," Ahsoka commented as she walked inside the classroom.

Ahsoka set her backpack down in her cubby. The cubbies were tall so that her students could hang up their coats and backpacks, their lunch boxes went underneath them and there was also a space on the bottom where they could be their shoes. Padme had the students decorate their spot themselves, she let them add the colors they wanted, bring in any items to make it their own. It gave the classroom a feeling that this was their space as much as it was hers, in a sense that it had their own unique touches. The only issue that came with it was that Padme wanted it to be alphabetical order so when Ahsoka arrived, things had to be slightly adjusted, only one of her students complained about the change, but everyone else was fine.

Padme let her eyes roam over each cubby, thinking of her students with a smile and more than pleased that just about everyone got along with each other. It made Padme very happy that her students had helped Ahsoka adjust to the new school, making the transition easier. This brought Padme's eyes to focus on her cubby which was heavily influenced by jungle and grasslands, though there were some pictures of planes. When they talked about habitats later in the semester, she would ask her student what caused her to pick this design. Padme made her way to Ahsoka's desk where she had set up the Space Chest board.

The game was similar to regular chest, though had it's own strange set of rules, different pieces and board. Instead of a square board, it was round, the pieces weren't represented as pawns, kings or queens, but with alien creatures. Growing up it had been Padme's favorite game to play with her sister and father, she just found it more entertaining than standard chess.

The first game the teacher and student played went by incredibly fast as Ahsoka left herself open for multiple attacks that Padme couldn't ignore. Especially when the young girl said not to go easy on her. The next game went better, but Ahsoka still lost very early on. Padmé offered more suggestions during their third game, which helped Ahsoka see openings she hadn't before and take a few of Padme's pieces. Though she still lost which was expected.

"How are you so good at this game," Ahsoka said exasperated as she moved the pieces back to their original place.

Padme chuckled, "Well I have been playing for a long time. Besides, I had a good teacher."

Ahsoka moved her first piece as she asked, "Who taught you?"

"My dad," Padme answered with a kind and slightly hesitant tone, "He taught me and my sister all the tips and tricks to winning."

A shadow seemed to pass over Ahsoka at Padme's words. The young girl slumped in her chair with a small frown on her face. Worry flickered inside Padme as she wondered what she had said to cause Ahsoka to go from happy to sad in a matter of moments.

"Ahsoka," Padmé questioned, worried at her silence.

Ahsoka stared at the board, softly and a little sad she said, "My dad went away."

Padme frowned, she didn't know the circumstance surrounding that sentence. Since Ahsoka lived with her brothers and no parents were ever mentioned, there was chance her father was dead or he had left them behind. Both were awful, though her phrasing didn't make it sound like he had died considering Ahsoka probably would have just said so. However she wasn't sure, maybe it was easier to say that. She briefly thought of what to say as she set her hand on Ahsoka's shoulder to offer comfort.

"I'm sorry, that must be difficult," Padme told her in a gentle tone.

Ahsoka's eyes snapped up to look at Padme with more anger than the teacher had ever seen on the girl's face. The anger left a moment later, but was replaced by a look of disgust.

"I don't want to play anymore," Ahsoka said before abruptly getting up from her seat. "Excuse me."

Without looking back, Ahsoka went into the 'panic room'. One of her students was prone to anxiety attacks and so Padmé had used an old metal closet as a panic room open to all her students when they were feeling overwhelmed. It wasn't terribly small, each of her students would be able to stretch their legs. Once inside they could turn on the little Christmas lights that hung on the wall and just lie on the pillows.

If a student ever felt overwhelmed, incredibly anxious or panicked, all they needed to do was hold up the finger sign for the letter 'P' and as soon as Padme saw it, they could get up and go. It could be at any time and she found it had helped all her students to have a place to be by themselves. Though some teachers thought that her students would abuse the little panic room as a way to skip class, Padme had a contingency set in place that prevented that from happening.

Padme watched as Ahsoka climbed into the little room and closed the doors sharply. This was the first time she had seen Ahsoka like that or use the little room. Some anxiety reached her as she wondered how she could have said the wrong thing with her words. Again, Padmé reminded herself that she didn't know the circumstances. Something else must have been going on and while it wasn't her place to pry, Padmé could not deny that her curiosity had grown.

Silently, Padmé put away the Space Chest game unsure of how she should go about damage control. However no sooner had she put the board away, she saw that Anakin had arrived. He was dressed in blue jeans, a black shirt and black jacket, his hair tousled. He looked great. The sight of him brought out the unfamiliar feelings again.

"Ana- Mr Skywalker," Padme greeted, she cursed the slip of her tongue.

Anakin grinned at her. In a few quick strides he stood before, he gave a very slight bow that Padme couldn't tell if it was supposed to be chivalrous or mocking. Either way it earned him a wry smile.

"Ms Amidala, pleasure to see you again," he told her genuinely, he glanced around, "I'm here for one snippy ten year old. Last I saw she was dressed in white jeans, red t shirt, white and blue hat?"

Padme gestured to the closet, "She's in there."

Anakin frowned at the closet, he looked back at the teacher, "The panic room? She mentioned it to us before- Obi Wan thought it was a brilliant idea by the way- but said she hadn't used it."

Guilt churned in Padme's stomach, she explained a little uneasily, "I fear I've said something to upset her, offering sympathies about her father."

Padmé watched as Anakin's entire body went rigid, a bit warily he asked her, "What did she say about him?"

Padmé answered, her brow furrowed slightly, "Only that he went away."

Anakin nodded a bit absently, "I see. Well you did nothing wrong, he's just a, let's say a sensitive subject."

All Padme could do was nod in acknowledgement, she could only really imagine why he was a sensitive subject. There were a number of possibilities, but speculating wouldn't do her any good or bring her any closer to answers. The only way she would know is if Ahsoka or one of her brothers informed of what was going on. Padme went to the shelf by her desk, making sure everything was in place while Anakin went to the little closet to get Ahsoka out. There were some quiet murmurs, but Padme couldn't make out what they were saying.

Anakin moved away from the teacher and kneeled in front of the closet. Her eyes glanced over to the side to see Anakin was kneeling in front of the closet, his mouth moving, but she couldn't make out any words. After another few seconds he let out a heavy breath before slowly rising to his feet. Padme brought her attention back to her shelf just as he had turned to look at her, she didn't want him to know she had been watching the interaction. It felt like she was spying or eavesdropping, which she supposed had some accuracy there.

Anakin came to her side, "So she's not eager to come out just yet. Is it alright that we take up your classroom for a bit longer? We don't want to intrude."

Padme shook her head, she offered him a reassuring grin, "It's not a problem."

"We appreciate your generosity," Anakin told her, he wore a sweet smile. "You are truly an angel."

Padme raised a brow at that, "What?"

Anakin's smile only seemed to grow, "An angel. The most beautiful and kind creatures to ever exist."

"You flatter me," Padme said simply, trying not to let the compliment go to her head.

"No, I only speak the truth," Anakin told her, he sounded so sure of that.

Padme let out a slight chuckle, "Well thank you for stroking my ego Mr Skywalker."

"Anakin. Mr Skywalker is so formal," Anakin said with a shake of his head.

Padme smirked lightly, "This is a formal exchange after all."

It was Anakin's turn to smirk, there was a twinkle in his eyes, "Is that right Ms Amidala?"

"Don't look at me like that," Padme said, only half teasing."

Anakin's brow quirked up, "Like what?"

"That," Padme replied, held tilted up slightly.

"Why not," Anakin questioned, his blue eyes seemed to shine.

His eyes captivated her for a moment, a rich shade of blue that was as deep as the ocean and vast like the skies. A moment passed between them, though time made it same longer than that as they just looked into each other's eyes. There was something there between them at Padme couldn't quite place and she couldn't deny that intrigue it had sparked in her. Her heart started to pound a bit harder in her chest, what was that about? He shouldn't have this affect on her.

Padme Amidala was great at not allowing things to get under her skin and control her, yet she found her composure slipping. All because of this gentle look in his eyes. Despite the difference of who was before her, what he had said, she felt a flare of panic and discomfort from a time she wished she could forget. When a pair of amber brown eyes looked down at her in a similar way, but with something not as pleasant in his gaze. Even though she could tell the blue eyes watching her was different, she felt unnerved.

She broke the connection or whatever that was by glancing away for a moment then bringing her gaze back to him.

"It makes me feel uncomfortable," she said, no strength to her words. It was only partially true.

Anakin's brow furrowed, trying to decipher if she was being serious or if she was still teasing. He thought they had connected there, but perhaps he had misjudged the situation.

"My apologies milady, I hadn't meant to make you uncomfortable," Anakin told her, both sincere and disappointed.

Padmé frowned at him, "Ana-"

"Come on Snips," Anakin called out as he turned away, "We shouldn't keep your teacher here any longer than necessary."

Padmé expected to see Ahsoka leave the panic room, but instead she looked past Anakin to see the young girl sitting at a desk near the closet, her hat pulled lower so that it brushed her eyebrows. Neither of them had heard her leave the room nor move around, though Anakin didn't seem as surprised as she was to see her student there. Ahsoka got onto her feet, hands holding her backpack straps tightly. It seemed as if she had been sitting there ready to go for a while. Anakin placed a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder to guide her out of the classroom.

Though as she walked away, Ahsoka looked over her shoulder, "Thanks for the game."

Padme didn't get the chance to reply as the pair walked out the door. The school teacher stood there in her spot unsure of what exactly had transpired there, she couldn't deny a bit of guilt churned her stomach and mentally kicked herself. On the one hand from upsetting Ahsoka and from upsetting Anakin as well. It wasn't his fault, it was all because of a memory, of a different time and she let it get the better of her in that moment. She'd only ever had one romantic partner, needless to say it didn't end well and even after all this time, she still struggled with getting flashes of a time with him. A time she wanted gone.

A flare of annoyance went through Padme. She was brilliant at remaining composed, yet somehow some flirting had undone her enough that her mind brought back a time she didn't want to remember? She just shouldn't have gotten caught up in the moment like that, she had better self control and could handle many things without ever being caught off guard. Padme prided herself on always being in control, being focused on the present and future. But the past had a way of creeping up on her sometimes.

Padme frowned in the direction of where Anakin had last been, she hoped she could see him again and give him some explanation for her actions. A soft groan left her, she just had to make things harder for herself.

MONDAY

"Thank you Hera for that story," Padmé said grinning at her student,

Hera returned her smile as she walked back to her seat, her dark ponytails swaying as she did so. Most Monday's tended to be on the dreary side of things, Padmé had watched all her students succumb to the weariness of the day and the thunderstorms outside were not helping either. So instead of finishing off the day with their English lesson, Padmé decided they would use their last period together to talk about something fun they did over the weekend.

All her students seemed pleased by the idea and it had certainly brightened their spirits, along with the fact that carpool would start in less than fifteen minutes. Three more students to go. All her students were sitting on the open carpet in the space between the white board and their desks. Padme was sitting on the right side of the whiteboard on her stool, looking at all her students. The desks had to be pushed back just a bit so there was enough space, but it worked just the same.

"Okay, next we have Ahsoka," Padme said with a grin.

To make things easier, she had decided to go down the line in alphabetical order and since Ahsoka's last name started with 'T' she was third to last. Ahsoka stood up from her seat and made her way past her fellow students until she got to the front of the room. Some of her other students had a bit of stage fright whenever Padmé did an activity such as this, but Ahsoka didn't seem to have that problem. Rather she seemed to relish being in the spotlight.

"Buckle your seatbelts and hold onto your hats," Ahsoka said with a wide smile, "Because I'm about to blow you away with what I did this weekend."

Padmé chuckled, pleased to see Ahsoka going all in, "And we are eager to hear it."

Ahsoka stood tall, she walked over to left as she started, "Picture it, Saturday morning and the sun hasn't come up yet and my older brother, Rex, came barreling into my room to wake me up. He said we needed to get out of the house and fast because we had a full day of adventuring."

"Why'd you have to get out of the house," asked a student, Caleb Dume.

Ahsoka's cheery expression faltered for a moment.

"Save your questions til the end," Padme said, saving Ahsoka from having to answer that question.

"First we went to Dex's Diner, which has some of the best pancakes ever," Ahsoka explained, her confidence returning, "Then after that, we went to Tiplar and Tiplee's Arcade which had laser tag, bumper cars, bowling and an arcade duh. It was sooo much fun, I even got a new high score on the game Saber Slash. Be sure to check it out, you'll see the initials AMT at the top. Rex and I went on all the rides, we played every game at least once. He crushed me at ski ball, but I beat him the Fast and Furious game. We tied at the shooting rangers course. The games were all so much fun."

Ahsoka paused for a moment, her grin widened, "My personal favorite was the Jurassic Park one. You got sit in this jeep like thing, it moved you around and you had to get away from the dinosaurs, capture or kill them. After the arcade, we went to go see the new Battle Stars movie which had a lot of action and chases in it! To finish the day we had dinner at Ronto's Roaster where the rest of my brothers came to join us. All dinner we played games." Ahsoka paused to laugh at the memory. "Anakin almost got us kicked out because he ended up hitting another customer with the napkin that he had thrown at Obi Wan, but missed. And on Sunday we played all day. We turned the entire house into a battle zone, nerf guns at the ready. I When I was left alone, I had to save my team and pull out a last minute victory. I even saved Obi Wan from an attack by knocking over a mattress so that he wouldn't be hit. And that was my awesome weekend."

Padmé smiled, "Does anyone have any questions for Ahsoka?"

"I have one," said one student, Asajj Ventress, who had a slight scowl on her face, "There's no way you got the high score on Saber Slash without cheat codes. What did you do to rig the game?"

Ahsoka wore a smug expression, "Nothing. It's called having talent."

"Did you see the maze at the arcade, my sister said they just put one in," asked another student, Cassian Andor.

Ahsoka nodded, "Yeah. Rex and I did the maze, but the wait took forever."

"Why did your brother say you had to leave the house," questioned Barriss Offee.

Padme watched Ahsoka with a bit of concern, it was a harmless question to be sure, but the firl's reaction earlier made Padme think something more was going on. As she looked at Ahsoka now, she could feel the apprehension coming from her despite the unbothered look on her face.

"Turns out we had some infestation, so we couldn't be home all day," Ahsoka answered plainly, she didn't look too sure about that.

Before anymore questions could be asked, Padmé spoke, "Thank you for your story Ahsoka."

Ahsoka nodded with a pleased look on her face before she made her way back to her seat in between Trace and Kalifa. The next two students then came up to give their stories. By the time the last student, Jinx, finished his story, there was about two minutes before the final bell rang. So her students got to work putting their desks back to where they were supposed to be and then gathering their bags. Padme stood at the door as they made their way back to their seats with their backpacks ready.

Since the rain was pouring down and showing no signs of slowing, carpool would be handled indoors. The intercom would come on to call out the students last name and if they didn't come after the second call, then a teacher would come to classroom to collect said student. That was where Padme came in standing at the door, ready to see if a teacher was coming and grabbing whichever student was called. Before she knew it, carpool was over and all her students are gone except for one Ahsoka Tano who was still sitting at her desk, head laying down on her arm. If Ahsoka was still here, then this meant there was a high chance of Anakin coming which filled Padmé with some butterflies.

All weekend she had replayed their conversation again and again, upset by how it had ended and wanting to apologize. If he did arrive then it would give her the opportunity to explain what happened. At least she figured it would make her feel better as well as ease his worries on the situation, if he had any worries. There was of course the chance that he didn't really care and had already forgotten about it, but she wouldn't disregard the possibility that the conversation had left him off balance as well.

"Excuse me, Ms Amidala," questioned a new voice.

Padme jumped in her spot, she turned to the side to see it was one of Ahsoka's brothers, one of the twins. Immediately she felt guilty for not being able to remember what his name was and afraid she would get it wrong. Rex was the brown haired one, right? No, he was blond or maybe not.

"Apologies ma'am, hadn't meant to startle you," he told her politely,

Padme waved it off, "No, my fault for getting lost in thought." She turned her attention to the lone student. "Ahsoka, your brother's here."

Ahsoka lifted her head up and glanced to her left so she could see them, "Hey Cody, it's not like you to be late- wait, don't you have class right now?"

The brother, Cody, replied with a sigh, "Yeah well Obi Wan and Anakin got caught up at work, Rex at the doctors."

"The doctor, why," Ahsoka asked as she walked over to the adults.

"Get his eyes checked out," Cody told her, he looked at Padme apologetically, "Sorry to make you wait ma'am. Thank you for your patience."

Padme answered him politely and hoped to hide her disappointment, "It was no trouble at all."

And with that, Ahsoka left with Cody leaving Padme alone and upset. She knew she shouldn't have been that upset that Anakin hadn't been the one to pick up Ahsoka, but she wanted to see him again, she wanted to explain herself even if she knew she didn't have to. A what if he never came back entered her mind, but she supposed that was silly. There was still the chance he would have to pick up Ahsoka unless he either avoided the task because of her, Padme doubted that would happen, or he would simply show up on time so that their conversations would have to be short. Padme wasn't sure which one bothered her more. A bit absently she brought her fingers through her loose hair.

"Get a hold of yourself," Padmé whispered to herself as she made her way back to her desk to pack up.