Padmé awoke late the following morning, took a shower and changed into one of her new outfits. She was going to continue asking Vader about his real name, but her sleeping mind had come up with a new strategy. She would ask her other questions, and then subtly interject the issue of his real name. Hopefully she could catch him off guard and he would let his name slip.
After dressing herself she went to test her door. She was surprised to find it unlocked, she thought Vader had locked it during his last visit. However, she was not going to miss this opportunity to explore her new home.
Stepping out into the hall, Padmé turned left and walked towards a sitting room. Within the room, there were two sofas flanking a rectangular coffee table. However, this was the only furniture present. It seemed that Vader kept very little furniture in his apartment, since all the rooms she had seen had the bare minimum.
After the brief perusal of the sitting room, she walked into the adjacent dining room. Inside was a long table, with a chair set at each side. On the far end of the table from her sat Vader, reading through a series of datapads. It did not appear that he had noticed her, so she quietly tried to retreat back to the sitting room, but before she could turn to leave Vader called out to her.
"Come in and sit down. Your breakfast is on its way." Vader said without moving his eyes away from his datapads.
Padmé did not say anything in response, but turned and took her seat at the opposite end of the table from him. She remained silent until a small blue domed droid entered carrying her breakfast.
"R2? What are you doing here?"
"Boop boop, beeeeep." R2D2 replied.
"The Emperor has confiscated most of your belongings, but did not seem interested in your droid. As long as you behave, you may keep him. He may stay with my droid, C3P0 when we are on board my ship." Vader explained.
Padmé was shocked at Vader's generosity. Just yesterday he had yelled and tried to hit her. This action seemed out of place with Vader's previous actions.
Vader looked up from his datapads and smirked at Padmé's speechlessness. She thought he was being generous. In reality, he had taken the droid apart earlier that morning in hopes of finding information on the rebels. Unfortunately, he did not find anything. He could have disposed of the droid, but it was in good working order and he sensed it could be helpful. Before Padmé had awoken, he put the droid back together and set him the task of making breakfast. Vader chuckled to himself at the thought that this droid could keep 3P0 entertained. His protocol droid was a sissy, scaredy cat that spent more time whining about space travel than being useful. Vader should have changed that droid's annoying programming years ago, but maybe now he could annoy Padmé with him.
"Beep beep boop." R2 said as he placed Padmé's breakfast in front of her.
"Thank you R2," Padmé replied when he set her breakfast down.
With a "Beep," R2 left her side and dropped off a plate at Vader's side and then left the room.
"I'd like to know who I should thank for all of this." Padmé stated after starting her breakfast.
Vader looked up from his breakfast and replied, "For breakfast, R2."
"No, for allowing me to keep R2."
Vader rolled his eyes and sighed. She was back on her name questions. "I told you, I was letting you keep him as long as you behave. So if you are going to thank anyone its me."
Padmé did not say anything, but continued to stare at him.
Vader sighed, "You may as well get used to calling me Darth Vader, you will never get another name from me."
Padmé went back to her breakfast and remained silent. It was time to try some small talk on another topic. "I've noticed you have very little furniture in the apartment, is there a reason for this?"
Vader looked up at her, he had been expecting another barrage of name questions. He was pleased that she had changed the subject. "I don't stay her that often, so I do not need furniture. I am usually on board my ship. Besides, until recently it was only me living here, so I did not need a lot of things. Why, is there something you want?" Vader said as he quirked his eyebrow.
"No, I was just curious." Padmé replied. Then she fell silent as they both returned to finishing their breakfast.
After both Padmé and Vader had finished their meal, R2 came in and cleared the plates. Padmé remained sitting in silence, while Vader continued reading his datapads.
"What are you reading?" Padmé asked.
"Reports." Vader vaguely replied.
"What kind of reports?"
"Stuff of no importance to you."
"Is it about your next mission?"
"Perhaps."
They both remained silent for another moment before Padmé continued.
"How long are we going to be on your ship?"
"Depends on how fast I complete my mission."
"Which is?"
Vader rolled his eyes at Padmé and sighed in exasperation, "Why should I tell you?"
"Well, I am going to be there with you." Padmé bristled.
Vader chuckled, "Yes, you will be there. However, you will be confined to quarters, so you do not need to know what is happening."
Padmé glared at him, which made Vader laugh at her some more. "Of course, if you would be cooperative, I might be able to give you some details." Vader added.
"Cooperative in what way?"
Vader smiled as he stared over his datapads. "Tell me where the rebels are."
"Never!" Padmé shouted.
"Fine, then you do not need to know what the mission plans are, so quit asking." Vader replied tersely. Based on yesterday's experience, Vader knew she would not answer him, but he was not about to pass on the opportunity to question her if she brought up the topic.
Padmé coldly stared back at Vader who had resumed his reading. He may not have told her directly what they were doing, but she knew he was hunting the rebellion. He could try as hard as he wanted, but he would never extract the information from her. However, while on board his ship she would need to do everything she could to distract him from completing his mission and harming her friends. She would think about this later, for now she decided to question Vader further.
"Why did you not want a slave?" Padmé asked.
"Because I do not need one." Vader said as he continued reading from his datapad.
"Yes, you said that, but your Master has slaves and he does not need them. So what is your problem with them?"
"The Emperor is a busy man, I am sure he has uses for his slaves." Vader replied dryly.
"Like you?" Padmé questioned.
Vader dropped the datapad he was reading with a loud clang and stood up from his chair. Pointing a finger at Padmé he angrily said, "I am nobody's slave."
"Really?" Padmé quirked an eyebrow at Vader and then continued. "Could have fooled me, you follow all of Sidious's orders."
"I choose to follow his orders." Vader replied as his blue eyes changed to yellow.
"And what would happen if you chose to disobey him?"
Vader growled in anger, he had had enough of Padmé's questions. Waving his hand in the air, he directed a Force suggestion to her to get her to fall asleep.
Padmé smiled at him and replied with a hint of laughter, "You think your mind trick will work on me?"
Vader was shocked. His mind trick had worked yesterday, or had it? Now that he thought about it, she must have been sleepy enough just to fall asleep again. After all she had spent most of the evening awake arguing with him. Realization dawned on Vader, that what power he thought he had over Padmé did not exist.
Vader was distracted from his thoughts when Padmé added, "You cannot stop me that easily."
That was it; Vader was not going to take any more provocation from her. He stalked over to her chair, roughly grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her back to her room. Along the way Padmé made snide remarks about him as she tried to release his grasp on her.
As they approached her door, she yelled, "Let me go!" and kicked Vader hard in the shin. Vader howled in a mixture of pain and fury as he quickly opened the door and unceremoniously shoved her inside.
Pointing his finger at her sprawled form on the floor he yelled, "You will stay here until you learn some respect." With that he shut the door and locked it behind her. He then stalked off to finish his reports on the rumored whereabouts of the rebellion.