A/N: Thank you to blossomlite, Anakin-Padme, Trinity Day, ShalBrenfan andszhismine for your lovely reviews! Here's the second chapter - not much action, and from the POV of my OCs. Hope you like, and please review. I love to read them!

Chapter Two

Nighttime on Teidon was nothing special, but to Telisse it was beautiful. She sat on her balcony, looking out at the gardens. The fountains gleamed in the lights scattered amongst the plants, swirling the reflected colours of the flowers. She stood and climbed up onto the balustrade, and then hoisted herself up onto the roof above. She sat down and leaned back, staring up at the moon and the stars. They drenched her in gentle silver light, bright but somehow cold.

She closed her eyes and pictured Anakin's face. She imagined his smile in her head. All day, he had smiled only once, at some comment Obi-Wan had made, but the image had burned itself into her memory. The rest of the time, he had simply looked bored – even more so whenever she talked to him.

She opened her eyes and pulled her dusty brown cloak closer around her.

He thinks I'm incredibly uninteresting, I can tell, she thought. Well, I suppose he's met a hundred others much more interesting than me. He's a Jedi, after all. I wish I could capture his attention somehow, and not by talking his ear off, either. She grimaced as she recalled the way she had just kept babbling on to him about Teidon and the people and the election – she hadn't seemed to be able to stop herself from talking. He made her nervous, made her desperate to get to know him – and so to cover up, she talked and asked stupid questions. He probably thought she was just a boring politician now.

I can't believe I care so much about what he thinks about me. I've only known him for a day, but he fills my mind all the time.

She began to pick at loose threads in the hem of her cloak, slowly pulling them out of the fabric. Okay, so he's good looking. That doesn't mean he's a nice person – nothing he's done today has told me anything about his character except that he doesn't like politics.

She let go of her cloak and lay flat on her back, placing her hands behind her head. Ah, admit it Telisse – you like him. You like him a lot. Of course, Anakin was a Jedi – and she knew that the Jedi were forbidden to have attachments.

Why do I always have to fall for the untouchable ones? Or the ones who take no notice of me?

She sighed. It was times like these that she felt lonely. She wished she had someone to talk to about all her problems and musings – but she had no friends close enough to open up to, and she couldn't talk to her brother. Their relationship was not one in which they shared much with one another. They rarely ever talked about anything deep – not even when their father died. And now that the election was looming, they were separated more than ever, and she hated it. As little as she talked to him, she loved Kimmel more than anyone she had ever known. He always made her feel a little calmer, and less lonesome. He was a much more mature person than her, wise and more experienced with a lot more tolerance for politics.

He would make a far better leader than I ever could be, she thought. Slowly, she sat up. I love my people…but am I ready to lead them? They don't even really know me. In fact, nobody really knew Telisse Sava-Justi. Plenty of people thought they did – but what they saw of her was only a tiny piece of the real girl. Her people knew her as a bright, sociable optimist, who always was cheerful and friendly. The Advisors' Council saw her as polite, chatty and imaginative. Her brother thought she was immature at times, but a thinker, and people-person with good diplomatic skills. And to her parents, she had been quiet, dutiful and respectful. Yet all of these images of her were not who she really was. They were just that – images – and she automatically set up a different one every time she came into contact with anybody. When she had met Obi-Wan and Anakin, she had shown them the garrulous side of her, but that too was not her true self. There was much more to her than what people saw.

She wondered vaguely what Anakin might think of her real personality, if he could ever see it. The only times she was herself were when nobody was around, or at night in the dark. Put somebody else with her and she would automatically switch on the side of her that she thought would work best in the situation.

She climbed down off the roof and dropped back onto the balcony. She disappeared inside her room, and when she emerged, she wore a hooded black cloak that covered her body and eyes.

There was one crowded place she could be herself, one place where she could forget her problems and let the real Telisse out of her many-faceted shell. She needed to get away and forget her loneliness. She climbed over the balcony's balustrade and dropped onto the one before, and then repeated the exercise until she landed in the gardens. Then she slipped away into the shadows the moon cast upon the quiet city.

Kimmel watched his sister move swiftly to the palace gate. He considered stopping her – but as always, he just watched until she exited the palace grounds and disappeared from view. He knew that she often snuck away at night to go and clear her mind – she had been doing it more frequently since their father's death. The election and growing discomfort among their people were weighing heavily on her mind, he could tell – and this was the only way she could deal with it.

He returned to his room and sat down. Sometimes he wished he could talk to Telisse about everything, and get her to open up. He knew that she never talked to her friends about any issues concerning her, and he worried that, with nobody to confide in, she would get lonely and depressed. But he knew that their own relationship was not close or strong enough for him to be her confidante. They loved each other, certainly – but their conversation was restricted to planetary affairs, entertainment and food. Trivial things, or impersonal issues. Never anything deep or intense.

He settled back onto his bed to sleep. Tomorrow was the first of his and Telisse's last two community outings – he would need all the rest he could get. The recent attempts on his and his sister's lives had shaken him to the core – the Teidonese were a mostly peaceful people, and the thought of going out amongst them with the knowledge that some of them wanted his sister dead was worrying.

Obi-Wan had suggested that he and Telisse stay separated as much as possible in the days leading up to the election in order to keep them safe. Kimmel did not like the idea of leaving his sister in danger, especially not with only a seventeen-year-old Jedi learner as her only security. The boy was only a year older than Telisse – what if he makes mistakes or acts with immaturity? It could cost his sister her life.

No, Obi-Wan said Anakin could be trusted and that Telisse would be perfectly safe with him, he reassured himself. No harm will come to her. Nothing can. She's my only family, my sister, my blood.

And while he would never admit it, Kimmel knew that without his sister, he would be lost.