"Stop fidgeting, Master. You're making me nervous."
"You should be nervous, padawan. You are meeting your future bondmatch!" Obi-Wan replied as he continued to smooth down the front of Anakin's tunics as they rode together in the turbolift that was taking them up to Padmé Amidala's apartment.
"I think you're nervous enough for the both of us." Anakin replied as he playfully slapped away Obi-Wan's hand. "You are acting as if it was your bondmatch, not mine."
"Aren't you the least bit apprehensive, padawan?"
Anakin silently studied his mind for a moment and then let a simple. "Nope."
"Youth." Grumbled his Master in reply.
The turbolift came to a sudden halt and Obi-Wan breathed in deeply and let the breath out slowly to calm his nerves. "Here we are, Anakin. Try to be on your best behavior."
Obi-Wan stepped out of the lift and into the hallway leading to Padmé's doorway, with Anakin following closely behind. "And stop rolling your eyes at me."
"Yes, Master." His apprentice mumbled dutifully.
Obi-Wan rang the chime and waited for just a moment before the durasteel door quietly hissed open, revealing their host waiting to greet them. He immediately took in the figure before him from toes to top, his eyes widening in appreciation as they traveled upward. From the delicate shoes on her feet to the petite body covered in shimmering lilac, she was the epitome of beauty. Her smile was as glittering as the dress she wore, and almost as much as the eyes that met his. She wasobviously happy to see them.
Finally, Obi-Wan thought, the Force had led him correctly.
"Padmé Amidala," he began the formal introduction. "you remember my padawan, Anakin Skywalker."
"Yes, of course," Padmé's eyes hesistantly swept from Obi-Wan to the slightly taller apprentice who smiled in return and bowed slightly. "Anakin. It's been a long time. You sure have grown!"
"So have you." And then the youth's eyes glanced over the young woman's head to view the various food choices displayed on the dining table. "Hey! Is that Torruvian pudding? I love Torruvian pudding!"
And with a look of complete disbelief on his face, Obi-Wan was helpless to watch as his apprentice brushed past them both, tossed his cloak over the end of a chair, and proceeded to the dining table to fill a plate.
"I'm sorry…" he muttered to Padmé.
"It's okay." She laughed. "I have an eighteen-year-old cousin who could eat the south end of a northbound bantha when he's hungry enough. I honestly don't know how you manage to keep enough food in your quarters."
"It's difficult sometimes." Obi-Wan teased in return as they watched Anakin continuing to fill his plate.
"We might as well join him." She motioned to one of the empty chairs at the table.
"Or else there might not be anything left." Obi-Wan instead offered for Padmé to take a chair, which he generously pulled out for her before taking one for himself. He looked disappointedly toward Anakin who had already begun reaching for second helpings.
He began to place some of the food items on his own plate, keeping a worried eye on his apprentice and their host.
"The table looks lovely, Padmé." He offered genuinely.
She had apparently gone to a lot of trouble for their visit. The food was prepared attractively, surrounded by numerous burning candles and delicate flower arrangements. The place setting before him could compete with any of the palaces he had visited during his missions.
"Thank you." Padmé returned before taking notice of the young man seated on the other side of the table. "Anakin, what have you been up to? It's been what -- ten years since I saw you last?"
Anakin cleared his throat and to Obi-Wan's relief, finished chewing what he had in his mouth before answering her question. " Just hanging out with my Master, doing Jedi stuff." Was his short reply, to which Obi-Wan cringed in his boots.
What was the boy doing? He had taught him better diplomacy than this!
"Jedi stuff." Padmé repeated with a small smirk. "And what exactly does that entail?"
"Well, " Anakin thought for a moment, clearing something lodged between his teeth with his tongue. "We just got back from a settling a conflict on one of the colonies. Which reminds me. Master, do you think we could stop by the Aratech Shop on the way back to the Temple and see if they have my turbine VTOL converter in yet?"
Noting the look of irritation on his Master's face, and realizing for some reason, he wasn't going to get an answer, Anakin turned his attention back to Padmé. "While we were on the Dothumas Colony, I bought this sweet speederbike frame, for next to nothing! I'm rebuilding it."
A piece of nerf roast went into his mouth as he spoke.
"The frame is in near perfect condition, and all I really need is the 73-Z engine block and the repulsor mechanism. But those are pretty easy to come by. I had to order the turbine converter a few weeks ago. It took almost all the credits I had saved, but by the time I get it finished, it will be a honey of a bike. Maybe sometime you can go with me for a ride."
Anakin paused, looking in confusion at his Master, who had not eaten a bite during his story and was continuing to stare at him, his eyes revealing what possibly could be anger, but Anakin was not sure. He then turned back to Padmé, who had propped her chin in her hand and was looking at him with a small smile on her face. Glancing down to her plate, his eyes came back up quickly. "Are you going to eat that?"
The rest of dinner passed pretty much the same way. Anakin informed Padmé of the best places in Coruscant to pick up hovercraft spare parts, while Obi-Wan nibbled at his food, apparently at a loss for words as well as an appetite.
When Obi-Wan finally did manage to get over theshocking lack of decorum his padawan was displaying, he was surprised to notice that Padmé didn't seem to mind the young man's topics of conversation. In fact, she appeared quite amused, and even managed to ask him relevant questions from time to time.
After dinner was completed, they rose to leave. Upon reaching the door, Anakin managed to offer a quick thank-you for the meal before Obi-Wan grabbed his elbow rather forcefully.
"Padawan, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to speak to Miss Amidala alone for a minute. I'll meet you downstairs." He hissed between clenched teeth.
Something in his Master's eyes told Anakin that now would not be a good time to argue, so he said his goodbye to the young woman and hurried to the lift.
Obi-Wan sent his frustrations quickly into the Force and turned to smile at the young woman standing next to him.
"I feel I must apologize for Anakin's behavior." He began, but was cut short with a wave of her small hand.
"Don't worry about it. I thought he was charming. He's definitely…energetic."
"That is most definite." Obi-Wan smiled in agreement.
Padmé watched with concern as Obi-Wan's smile disappeared and a look of concentration crept over his face. Whatever he was about to say, was going to be much more serious.
"Padmé. Whether you realize it or not, Anakin and I came to your apartment for a reason tonight." The Jedi Master once again paused. "I'm not exactly sure how to proceed with this, so I'm just going to come right out with it."
"Okay." Padmé consoled him as it was obvious Obi-Wan was having trouble saying what was on his mind.
Taking another deep breath, Obi-Wan hurried on, before he lost his nerve.
"As Anakin's Jedi Master, it is my responsibility to provide a bondmatch for his upcoming Shidoki Ceremony. I have been searching for a while now without much success, but yesterday when I saw you in the hallway, the Force spoke to me and told me that you were the one. I am here to request that you consider being a part of Anakin's Shidoki. The preliminary ceremony is next month with the final ceremony in three more months. That gives you four months to develop your relationship and prepare for the actual Shidoki bonding. If you will agree, that is."
Obi-Wan let out a quick breath and his shoulders visibly relaxed while he awaited Padmé's reply.
Padmé had heard the words bondmatch and Shidoki, and the rest of Obi-Wan's long speech had basically been lost in the focus of her lack of knowledge of those two terms. But she definitely knew what the words 'relationship' and 'bonding' meant, and those words alone made her nervous.
So, Obi-Wan wasn't here for himself. This wasn't a date – at least not with him. He was here to set her up with his apprentice!
She knew she should say something, but what? The truth was, she was too dumbfounded to think, much less speak. The word Shidoki kept replaying over and over like a broken holomessage in her head.
In a fog, she heard herself say, "Give me some time to think about it." Saw Obi-Wan's smile of acceptance and watched him leave.
As awareness began to creep back upon her, Padmé turned back toward the apartment sleeping quarters and screamed. "Dormé!"
Dormé was immediately at her side. "What's wrong, Mi'lady?"
"Wha…Wha…." Padmé stammered. "What in the hell is a Shidoki?"
"I'm not sure, " Dormé replied. "But it doesn't sound very appealing."
Together, the two women spent the next hour searching the HoloNet for information about the Shidoki. When Padmé powered down the computer and leaned back to rub her neck, she didn't feel any better that she had before.
"What am I going to do?" She looked miserably at her friend.
Dormé chewed the inside of her mouth for a moment. "As I see it, you have two choices. You can refuse this Shidoki thing and not get to see Obi-Wan, as he seems determined to find a partner for his apprentice and therefore won't have time to spend with you."
The young woman's eyes squinted as an ingenious idea apparently came to her. "Or, you can agree to participate in the Shidoki and spend as much time with Obi-Wan as you like."
"Agree to it? Dormé, you're crazy." Padmé rose quickly and walked across the room to throw herself down upon the couch.
"Now, listen to me!" The young assistant followed. "According to the information we read, a Shidoki Master is required to chaperone his apprentice until the final ceremony. That means, whenever you and Anakin are together, Obi-Wan has to be there too. If you look at it this way, for the next four months, you will be spending an awful lot of time with the man you truly want, and perhaps along the way you can convince him that he wants you too."
Padmé appeared to be thinking over Dormé's suggestion before her hands came up to aggressively rub at her temples in an attempt to ease away the headache that had begun to form there.
"You're right. What choice do I have?" She gloomily admitted. "At least I'll get to see Obi-Wan." Her eyebrows furrowed abruptly as another thought hit her. "But what happens if Anakin falls in love with me? What am I supposed to do then? Just break his heart?"
"From what you've told me, that boy is in love with two things – one, being a Jedi, and two, speederbikes. I don't think there's a chance he's going to fall in love with you. It seems to me that he is simply going along with ancient tradition, in order to please his Master."
"Maybe you're right." Padmé sat up next to her friend.
"I hope you're right." She corrected.
"You'd better be right!" She threatened as she once more commenced to rubbing her head to ease away the headache that now had escalated to a full-blown migraine.