A big, hearty 'thank you' to my faithful and treasured reviewers! Please forgive my self-promoting plug of my story "Disruptions" in this chapter (through Mace Windu) :)

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Padme's little alarm sounded and she quickly turned it off. She practically jumped off the sofa in her eagerness to get the day started. As she quickly folded her blankets, she heard a moan coming from the floor. Padme knelt beside Obi-Wan and chuckled lightly. He was lying on his stomach with his face turned towards her. His hair was askew and the blanket was pulled snugly around his neck. He almost looked like a little boy. Padme shook his shoulder. "Time to get up."

Obi-Wan slowly opened his eyes and peeked at the chrono. "Oh, Padme!" He promptly covered his head with the blanket. He was usually an early riser, but he now stayed up late every night talking with Padme. It was getting harder to get up in the morning. His muffled voice filtered through the covering. "Wake me up in another hour."

"Oh, no you don't! You're going to get up and shave like you promised!"

Obi-Wan didn't move. "It will not take me that long to shave!"

Why you stubborn bantha! Padme tried to yank the blanket up, but he had too tight a grip on it. She pondered what she could do to get the recalcitrant Jedi Master up, when it struck her. She poised her hand at the edge of the blanket near his side. I sure hope you're ticklish. She then quickly stuck her hand underneath and started to move her fingers up his exposed side.

Obi-Wan's arms flew down to protect his sides. "Padme!"

Aha, you are ticklish! With his arms now protecting his sides, Padme was able to pull the blanket off. Then she attacked both his sides with her nimble fingers. Obi-Wan started to giggle as he tried to stop her. It was one of the cutest sounds she'd ever heard!

Obi-Wan tried to roll away, but she grabbed his shirt and kept up the assault. "Padme!"

"Are you going to get up?"

"You…have a…sadistic…streak!"

When Obi-Wan tried to wiggle away, Padme moved without even thinking about what she was doing. She quickly straddled his back, held him down with her weight and continued to tickle him.

"St…(giggle). St…op. (fits of giggles) Pleeease!"

"Will you get up?"

Tears were now running down Obi-Wan's face. "Yes!"

Padme halted her fingers and Obi-Wan relaxed underneath her. Padme suddenly realized the somewhat compromising position they were in. She quickly got up and flushed with embarrassment. Luckily, Obi-Wan was still on his stomach – wiping the tears off his face and calming his breathing. Good going, Padme! Maul the man, why don't you?

Obi-Wan flopped over onto his back. "YOU are evil."

"It's a trait I try to keep well-hidden." Seeing Obi-Wan lying like that almost tempted Padme to maul him again. What is the matter with me? She hastily moved toward the kitchen. "You have an appointment with the fresher."

Obi-Wan propped himself up on his elbows with a grin. "Wait a minute, I can't shave. I don't have a razor."

Padme called out from the kitchen. "Look outside in the hallway."

Obi-Wan lifted his eyebrows in question. He got up, opened the front door and found a small box. He brought it back in and opened it up. Inside was a razor, shaving cream, aftershave and haircutting scissors. "You're sneaky as well as sadistic and evil."

Padme stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a wide grin on her face. "I took the liberty of making a call to the commissary last night." She pointed to the fresher. "Now get to work! I'll make breakfast while you shave."

Obi-Wan grumbled as he moved towards the fresher. "And I thought Yoda was a task master!"

"Let me see you before you take a shower."

Obi-Wan stopped in his tracks and slowly turned back to her, one eyebrow cocked in question.

Padme blushed furiously when she realized how that must have sounded. "I mean, let me see how you look clean-shaven before you take your shower."

Obi-Wan grinned wickedly at her and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Your wish is my command." He worked not to laugh as she turned an even deeper shade of red.

Padme's wide eyes followed him as he went into the fresher. Oh, Obi-Wan, do you have any idea what you're doing to me? She was finding everything about him confoundedly attractive. Okay, so it took living with him and seeing him half-naked before she had been able to see what other women saw in the span of a minute with him fully clothed! But now that she'd been bitten by the Obi-Wan bug, she wondered if there was an antidote.

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Padme was setting the timer on the oven when she heard Obi-Wan emerge from the fresher. Her heart sped up in anticipation. She took a deep breath and headed out of the kitchen. That breath immediately caught in her throat when she saw Obi-Wan, still dressed in his sleep clothes.

"Okay, Senator, as you requested…" Obi-Wan self-consciously stroked his chin. "It's not exactly the face I remember."

"No, it's better." Padme didn't mean to say that out loud, but it was the truth. Obi-Wan was even more handsome now then he was at twenty-five. His face had filled out a bit. It was more rugged and less boyish. That wonderful cleft in his chin was just as prominent as ever. Padme would never have thought this possible, but his eyes were even more piercing without the beard. "Age has been very kind to you, Obi-Wan."

"Thank you."

Padme had to smile at his blush. "You look quite a bit younger than thirty-seven without that beard."

"That's one of the reasons why I grew the beard all those years ago. I got tired of people asking me if I was truly old enough to have a padawan."

"Considering Anakin is now a Knight, I should think that reason has expired."

"I guess I've grown used to having it."

"It can be good to shake up our routines once in a while and do something different."

"I think I've shaken things up quite a bit recently."

"That you have." Padme looked at Obi-Wan with a sly smile. "Care to shake things up just a bit more?"

"I'll probably regret asking this…But what do you mean?"

"Let me cut your hair."

Obi-Wan's hand automatically went up to his hair. "I don't need a haircut."

"Just a trim. I'm really good at it. I used to cut hair for my family all the time."

Obi-Wan smelled a delicious odor coming from the kitchen. "What's for breakfast? It smells wonderful."

Padme smiled brightly. "I made us some coffee cake."

"I'll make you a deal. Cook some bacon, nice and crispy, and make a strong pot of coffee to go with the coffee cake, and I'll let you TRIM my hair."

"Deal." Padme picked up the scissors and a comb. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled the reluctant Jedi out onto the balcony. She moved one of the chairs by the wall out to the center. "Sit."

Obi-Wan put his hands on his hips, eyes sparkling. "Do you order all your friends around like this?"

"Hmm." Padme acted like she had to ponder on that. "Pretty much."

Obi-Wan grinned as he sat down. "Thought so." He turned back to Padme suddenly. "Do NOT make me look like a padawan!"

"Don't worry! I would never do that to you." Padme ran her fingers through his hair to test the length. It was very soft. "Oh, you might want to take off your shirt. Otherwise, it's going to be completely covered in hair." A good excuse to see him shirtless again!

Obi-Wan nodded and began unbuttoning his shirt. He pulled it off and slung it over the wall of the balcony. "All right." As Padme set to work, he looked down warily at the hair falling down beside him. Obi-Wan breathed a sigh of relief. Good. It doesn't look like she's getting too carried away.

"Okay, I'm done." Padme watched as he stood up and tried to wipe the hair off his torso. "Here, let me get your back." She brushed the hair off his smooth back and shoulders. She resolutely kept her hands from going below his mid-back, but she couldn't keep her eyes from going lower. On top of everything else, he has a nice butt! "I think we got most of it."

When they went back into the apartment, Obi-Wan quickly headed for the fresher. Padme followed him in, wanting to see his reaction. He ran his fingers through his shorter hair. "Not bad. I may keep you on staff."

Padme went and sat on the counter in front of Obi-Wan. "Shall I resign from the senate right away?"

"Why not? But you do realize you'd have to accompany me from planet to planet, battlefield to battlefield."

Getting to be with Obi-Wan all the time – it really didn't sound like a horrible prospect to Padme. "It would be a switch from my current, cushy position, but I think I could handle it." She put her fingers in his hair and lifted up a bit. "You have thick hair. With it being shorter now, you could give it a bit of lift. You could use your fingers and a bit of hair gel or mousse."

Obi-Wan looked at her askance. "You expect me to SYLE my hair? Carry hair gel around with me on missions?"

Padme giggled. "It's actually quite practical. You wouldn't have to worry about your hair falling in your eyes while your fighting."

"I want wash and go hair, thank you very much."

"I think I know the real reason you're reluctant to style your hair."

"And that is?"

"It would be harder to run your fingers through your hair. You do that when you're nervous or embarrassed and when you're thinking."

"I do?"

Padme grinned at Obi-Wan as she hopped down. "Yes, you do. Go ahead and take your shower. I'll get the bacon and the coffee going."

A while later, Obi-Wan walked out of the fresher fully dressed. He walked straight to the front door and opened it as Mace Windu came up.

"Oh, no!" Mace gaped as he looked at his now beardless friend.

Obi-Wan looked slightly irritated. "What do you mean, 'Oh, no?'"

Mace nodded at Padme as she came out of the kitchen. "You know bloody well what I mean! Did you learn nothing in that whole brouhaha after you killed the Sith?"

Padme looked at Mace in confusion. "What brouhaha?"

Mace cut off Obi-Wan's protest. "He became quite the Temple celebrity after the incidents on Naboo. He was always popular with the female population of the Temple, but his celebrity upon returning from Naboo elevated that interest exponentially."

Obi-Wan was pink. "It was not that bad!"

Mace snorted. "Yes, it was. You've always had that effect on the opposite sex, and not just within the Temple. When you were a child, every woman who came into contact with you wanted to adopt you. As you grew older, however, they stopped wanting to adopt you and started wanting to…"

"MACE!" Obi-Wan looked mortified. He threw Padme a withering look when she burst into laughter.

Mace looked the perfect picture of innocence. "What?" He loved teasing his overly-humble and easily embarrassed friend. "You've got a meeting at the senate building, right? The media is going to go nuts over you."

"Surely the media has more important things to worry about then whether or not I shaved this morning!"

Mace looked at Obi-Wan like one would look at a naïve child. "The media reports on EVERYTHING you and Anakin do! Mark my words, Obi-Wan, this is going to make the Temple incident seem like a walk in the park!"

Padme suddenly had a bad feeling about this. She hadn't even thought of the media or how they would react to seeing a clean-shaven, younger-looking and even-more-gorgeous General Kenobi. What if she was the cause of Obi-Wan being caught in a media firestorm?