Padmé gasped. She thought she would never learn his real name, and he had finally revealed it to her himself. Smiling, she gazed back at his sleeping form and whispered, "Anakin." Anakin did not move, but a smile crept onto his face in response to her voice. Padmé continued to smile at his reaction, and mused that he looked peaceful in his sleep.
As Padmé continued to gaze at Anakin, she wondered what had happened to make him a Sith. How had Sidious convinced him to forget his past and take up the persona of Darth Vader? Perhaps now that he had given her his name, he would answer these new questions as well.
Padmé decided to let Anakin rest and leave him in peace. She stood up from the bed and started to walk away. However, she had only moved a few feet from the bed when she heard Anakin moan in pain. She quickly walked back to the bed to check on him and see what was wrong, but his moans stopped as she approached the bed.
Padmé stayed by his side for a few moments to make sure he was fine before she walked away again. However just as before, as she moved further away from the bed Anakin's moans continued. Padmé went back to the bed and checked on him again, but his moans stopped and everything seemed to be fine. Padmé tried to leave Anakin's side several times, but was called back every time by his moans.
Padmé sighed as she sat herself down on the floor next to Anakin's bed. When he was Vader she could have listened to him be in pain, but now that he was Anakin she could not stand the sound. Since he was quiet when she was near, Padmé decided to sit next to the bed until he woke up.
Hours past by, and Padmé spent her time mulling over her own thoughts, or silently gazing at Anakin. Later in the day, R2 brought her some food and picked out some reading material from one of the bookshelves for her. Anakin slept the whole day, while Padmé silently read next to him. However, after finishing her evening meal that C3P0 had brought her she grew bored of reading. With nothing else to do, Padmé leaned up against the bed and soon fell asleep.
Anakin awoke late in the evening and winced at the pain in his chest and arms. He looked down and noticed that some of his wounds had bled through his bandages. However, his master's Force block had lifted, so instead of replacing the bandages, he used the Force to heal his wounds completely.
His wounds were no longer visible as he sat up and removed the sodden bandages from his body. The only indications that he had been injured were blotches of dried blood across his chest and forearms. He decided to take a shower before continuing his rest.
Not paying attention to what he was doing, Anakin almost stepped on Padmé as he rose from his bed. He glanced down at her sleeping form and was amazed that she had stayed by his side while he slept. His feelings of trust grew at this sight.
Noting that she was probably uncomfortable in her current position, Anakin temporarily discarded his bandages on the floor. Then he carefully picked up Padmé and laid her out on the bed for her to continue her slumber.
Anakin's eyes remained fixed on Padmé's sleeping form for a moment before he picked up his bandages. He then went to the fresher to discard them and clean himself up, but he stole one last glance at Padmé before he entered. He mused that she had truly been an angel today.
After taking his shower, Anakin had changed into a pair of his black sleep pants. He was still quite tired from the previous day regardless of the fact that he had already slept for most of the day.
Yawning as he stretched his arms, Anakin walked back over to the bed to continue his rest. However, he had forgotten that he had placed Padmé on the bed earlier. It was not until he had reached the bed, and gazed down at her slumbering form that he remembered that she was there.
Padmé looked peaceful in her sleep. Her curly brown hair was fanned out across one of the pillows and Anakin noted that it framed her face well and showed off her natural beauty. After the kindness that she had showed him, he did not have the heart to wake her. Instead, he knelt down on the floor beside the bed, gently lifted Padmé's right hand and brought it to his lips. He lightly kissed the back of it and whispered, "Thank you" before he stood up to leave the bedside.
Anakin had just turned away from Padmé and was about to walk away, when a soft, sleepy voice called out to him. "You are welcome, but what are you doing out of bed?"
Anakin rolled his eyes, and with his back still to her he responded, "I did not want to disturb you."
Padmé was slightly taken aback by Anakin's courteousness. As Darth Vader, he had shown some kindness to her, but these moments never ceased to surprise her. "You should not be out of bed. Your wounds will not heal if you do not rest." She replied casually.
Anakin turned towards her, "I am healed."
Padmé gasped as she saw that there was no trace of the gaping wounds she had bandaged earlier.
Anakin sat on the bed next to her and replied to her unspoken question, "My Force abilities have returned, so I was able to heal myself. However…" He gently grabbed Padmé's hand and brought it to his lips again as he continued, "…thank you for your kindness."
Padmé and Anakin's eyes locked on one another's, as he lightly kissed her hand again. Padmé placed her other hand on his shoulder, and lightly traced the places where Anakin's wounds had been as if to ensure that they were truly healed. "How can you let him treat you like that?" She asked as Anakin released her other hand.
"I deserved it. I have failed him, and failure is not acceptable." He replied with a yawn.
"No one deserves to be treated like that, no matter what they have done wrong."
Anakin fell silent as he continued to stare into Padmé's eyes.
"Anakin, why do you follow him? What happened long ago to make you follow him?"
Anakin's gaze fell to Padmé's lips as his name fell from them. It was a beautiful sound coming from her and his heart fluttered as she uttered it.
"Anakin?" Padmé called out again trying to end his musings.
Anakin sighed in response and dropped his gaze from her as he responded, "I don't want to talk about that. I just want to get some sleep." He locked his gaze back onto Padmé's eyes as he finished.
"But Anakin…" Padmé tried to reply, but she was cutoff when Anakin moved in and kissed her passionately. She pressed her palms against his chest as if she wanted to push him away, but he held her firmly to him. Soon she wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes as she gave into his kiss.
The kiss continued for a moment until Padmé realized that she was kissing her enemy. Her eyes snapped open as a look of horror crossed her face. What was she doing? He was a Sith Lord and she was a rebel. She certainly was not supposed to be kissing him.
Padmé quickly moved her hands down Anakin's chest and pushed him away with all of her might. As their kiss abruptly broke, her horror stricken gaze locked onto Anakin's shocked blue orbs.
Silence permeated the room until Padmé breathlessly said, "I…. I shouldn't have done that." Then she quickly ran from the bed, exited the bedroom, and retreated to the sitting room outside.
For his part, Anakin continued to sit on the bed staring at Padmé's retreating form. As the door to the bedroom closed his eyes briefly flashed yellow. With a growl, he grabbed a nearby pillow and angrily threw it at the closed door.