A/N: So many of you thought Anakin was being a creeper in the last chapter… C'mon guys, give our boy some credit! ;)
Padme woke slowly, blinking and yawning blearily as the high decorated ceiling came into focus above her. In the space of a moment, the events of yesterday came rushing back into her mind and stole her breath. She wasn't in the Coruscant with the Rebels anymore, she was in the Empire with the Imperials and Anakin… The thought of the Imperial leader sent a cold shudder of dread racing through her as she remembered exactly where she was.
Slowly, terrified, Padme slid her fingers across the bedsheets and found the other side of the wide mattress cold and empty. But… What? Bolting upright, she frowned as her eyes scanned the bedroom. Anakin wasn't here. She'd thought that… Well, he'd been so insistent on her sleeping in here, it'd made her think… What was he playing at? The other side of the bed hadn't been slept in and there was no sign of him anywhere.
Throwing the covers back, Padme slipped out of bed and padded across the soft, plush carpet toward the living room area beyond the arched bedroom doorway. Anakin and some of his crew had gone out last night hunting… Maybe something had happened? Maybe the monsters had gotten him the way they'd killed so many others. No, she couldn't believe that. The Imperial was an enigma, larger than life, he couldn't be killed that easily.
A strange feeling pooled low in her stomach as she glanced back over her shoulder at the empty bed. What was it? Relief? Confusion? Disappointment? No, that was ridiculous. She was just unsettled by these new living arrangements. All the change was going to take a little getting used was all. She felt like a child whose security blanket had been taken away, unsafe, unsupported and vulnerable to monsters beneath the bed.
Only, the real monsters were outside not under the bed.
Making her way into the living room area, Padme started at the sound of breathing. Frowning, the former Rebel crept toward the nearest sofa and peered over its cushioned edge to find the Imperial leader sleeping soundly, peacefully unaware of her presence. Did he sleep out here? Why would he do that? For all the hotel had probably spent on the furniture, the sofas didn't look very comfortable to rest on for a full night judging by Anakin's posture. His head rested at an awkward elevated angle on the arm of the sofa while his legs were too long to fully lay on and had to be bent to avoid going over the other arm. How could he sleep like that? It looked awful.
Why would he choose to endure such an uncomfortable night when he had a perfectly good bed right in there? What was the point in denying Padme a room of her own just to take the sofa? Last night Anakin had almost made it seem like… Like he'd wanted something from her… But, evidently not. Why was he doing this? Was this all some kind of game he was playing without telling her the rules? It felt like she was stumbling around blindly trying to find her way to safety. She shook her head and pulled her gaze away. Understanding this man was impossible.
Padme explored the rooms a little more thoroughly while Anakin slept, touching things, opening drawers and cabinets but there was little to find. She'd been right yesterday; the bedroom was the only lived in part of this space. So wasteful. There were still people out there living in the streets. She wasn't stupid, not everyone could seek protection under the Rebel and Imperial roofs, that would make it easier for the monsters to smell them and hunt them… And it would be difficult to find a way to live together without fights or arguments over space and supplies… Still, she wished it were that simple.
Around thirty minutes later, Anakin woke with a loud yawn and stretched his arms above his head, rolling his stiff shoulders. Padme had settled by a high risen table and chairs near the window gazing out at the New York skyline. Hearing him rouse, she turned, resting her chin on her palm and watched him sit up, rubbing his eyes.
"Morning." She said.
"Mmm," Anakin grunted back. "Fuck, my neck his killing me."
He was still dressed in the clothes he went out in last night, Padme noticed. She'd done the same thing… In all the confusion of yesterday, she'd forgotten to pick up her little bag of belonging before leaving with Anakin and she'd been so afraid of sharing a bed with him that taking off any clothing simply hadn't been an option. The last thing she'd wanted to do was encourage anything…
"You slept here all night?" Padme asked quietly.
He ran his hand through messy curls and yawned again. "Not all night. We got back in pretty late but yeah, I settled here."
Resting her forearms on the cold silver table face, she shook her head. "But I thought… Why did you want me to sleep in here if…" Flushing, she looked up at the ceiling to avoid meeting Anakin's eye and tried to summon the will to finish. "I got the impression last night that you wanted to share the bed." The last few words tumbled passed her lips awkwardly and it took all of Padme's willpower not to cover her face with her hands.
Anakin grinned at that. "Did you wake up disappointed, Naberrie?" He chuckled before his expression grew more serious. "There's a lot of men around here who haven't been around a woman other than Aphra in a long time, Padme. Aphra can kick any guy's ass six ways to Sunday for harassing her, believe me, but you…" His blue gaze travelled from her feet to her eyes slowly. "Well, I've seen your aim."
She scoffed even as her mind reeled. "It wouldn't be the first guy I had to fight off. I was out there on my own before the Rebels, y'know. And my aim isn't that bad…"
"I know." Anakin muttered darkly, "It's just better you stay up here… The door locks don't work like they used to in the old days. You're safer here."
She'd never considered that before. In all her frightened spiralling last night Anakin had been the immediate danger to her safety not anyone else. With the Rebels, everyone felt connected, warm and friendly but the Imperial group were colder… There wasn't the same sense of comradery here. Padme was going to miss that.
"Well… Thank you… For looking out for me like that." Directing those words at Anakin Skywalker, the bully boy, the fierce and cruel Imperial was strange but so far he'd earned them. He'd saved her life, hadn't he? Now he was ensuring her safety inside his base too. It was a nice thing to do, kind even… But what did he want from her? He'd taken the couch rather than make her uncomfortable by sharing his bed. It was all so confusing. "I'll sleep out here from now on." Padme declared, "I'm shorter than you so it makes more sense."
"It's fine." Anakin waved her off and stood up, stretching again. "Take the bed, Padme. I don't mind."
"It's your bed!"
"And I'm giving it to you." He laughed and moved passed the table Padme had settled at. "I'm going to get changed and head downstairs for breakfast. Did you eat?"
"No, not yet." She murmured. From where she sat, Padme could see a sliver of the bedroom area and Anakin walking around it. He vanished from her view momentarily before reappearing shirtless and tugging open a drawer. She should look away, she should really look away… How was he so tanned? And well-muscled? Her head tipped slightly as she watched him pull out a shirt from the opened drawer and pull it over his head. If she was being honest, she supposed Anakin was good looking. In a merely aesthetic way of course. He was the kind of man her old friends might have giggled and ogled but she knew better.
"Are you changing?" Anakin called out, his voice startling Padme out of her thoughts. Mortified by her staring, she forced her eyes back to the window instead. The view there was safer.
"Oh, um, no. I didn't bring my bag." She replied. There hadn't exactly been much of a chance to turn back inside and get anything then… She'd been so shaken that the thought hadn't occurred to her. It was stupid in hindsight. It had only been a small collection of clothes, nothing sentimental or special, anything like that was long gone by now… Still, she was going to have to get her hands on clothes soon and Padme had the impression Aphra wouldn't be keen on sharing for a while.
"I didn't think of that." His voice pulled her back, "sorry. I'll get you some, I promise."
That was how it was for weeks and then months. Two months altogether. Padme settled into the oversized bed of the presidential suite every night while Anakin curled up on the sofa beneath the soft blanket that'd lived on the bed's edge beforehand. Sometimes they settled down for the night together and other times separately. More often he'd come in late or in the early hours after a hunt with his crew while she slept or laid between the sheets and listened out for his return. It became part of the… routine to hear him enter the room. Something about it was soothing. Anakin came through on his promise on new clothes two days after their conversation, Padme woke up to a pile of tank tops, shirts, sweaters and pants one morning and somehow all in the correct size. Something told her he might have forced some help out of Aphra for that… Still, she was grateful to have options and choice once again.
The entire situation felt fragile and odd but it also felt like it was working… And so, she decided to wait and see. Slowly, as the days passed, the Empire began to feel a little like home just like the Coruscant had. Padme did as she was told for the most part, just like everyone else did, taking her share of the daily tasks and passing the days with as much activity as she could find. Over time, some of the Imperials began to warm to her. She learned the name of the man who'd called the code red, Rex, a New Zealander who'd moved to America a year before the monsters showed up. He'd lost contact with his parents and twin brother when things got bad and hadn't learned their fates. She also met Kit with his long black dreadlocks tied in a bun; he'd been one of the founding members of the Imperials and had just graduated med school when the world collapsed. Through Kit, Padme learned Aphra had been an archaeologist in the old world and that Anakin had saved her from being ripped to pieces by a monster.
Both Rex and Kit had given her a formal welcome to the Empire with handshakes and warm smiles but the former archaeologist had merely rolled her eyes and wandered off to speak with Anakin by one of the booths. What a shame, Padme had thought at the time, the only other woman here and we can't be friends.
It'd been the Imperial Leader himself who'd introduced her to some of the others in the building. He pointed out men such as Willhuff Tarkin, a "boring bastard but dangerously clever", as Anakin described him, another man by the name of Galen Erso who's best friend and daughter had disappeared as the monsters began to spread, a mysterious older man who went only by his surname, Dooku, and former professional boxer whose face was patterned with intricate tattoos named Maul. There were others around who weren't pointed out and she wondered whether it was because Anakin didn't deem them worthy of his time and attention or simply because he just didn't know them well enough to introduce her.
She wasn't sure which was worse.
One night, Padme was dozing in the tender space between sleep and wakefulness when a loud crash slammed her firmly into the side of awake. She sat up, heart hammering in her chest as the sound of heavy footsteps thundered through the suite. Who was that? Anakin? But he was usually so quiet when he came back at night… Without thinking, she reached for the small black Glock she kept on the bedside table and slipped out of bed. There was no reason for anyone other than Anakin to come in here, so if one of the Imperials had, it wasn't good.
Padme's heart pounded fiercely, almost painful inside her ribs, in a way it didn't do around the monsters anymore. Fighting monsters had long ago become the cruel reality of her world but feeling under threat by another human? That was a whole new kind of nightmare… Her palms sweated around the handle of the gun. Steeling herself, she all but threw herself into the living room area and flicked the safety off.
"What are you doing up here?!" She cried, pointing the gun at the shadowy intruder as they came forward. A moment later, the dim moonlight cast just enough brightness into the dark room to reveal Anakin's face as he collapsed onto the sofa that'd he'd made his bed. He rubbed his face with his hand and heaved a sigh, not speaking. Padme gasped and almost dropped the gun to the carpet, just barely remembering to switch the safety back on before placing the weapon onto a nearby table. "Oh my god, Anakin! I almost shot you! What the hell are you playing at?"
Padme watched him run a hand through his hair. His wrists were smeared with blood. After a moment, Anakin pulled off his boots and threw them brutally across the room with a frustrated grunt. Something was wrong… Had someone in his night crew been killed? She thought of Rex and Kit and paled… God, she hoped everyone was alright. "Hey…" She said softly and carefully made her way to the sofa. "Anakin, talk to me… What's wrong?"
When she sat down beside him, the Imperial shook his head before lifting it away from his palm. Padme watched his throat bob as he swallowed. "There was a girl out there tonight." He spoke lowly, "she was all alone and… And she looked like you – big brown eyes and curls." Anakin's searing gaze blazed into hers, the distress within them was painful to look at. She hated to imagine how it must feel. "She was being chased by two of the creatures when we came onto the street but they were too close to do anything. God, Padme, the way she was screaming for help…" He shook his head again. "Kit shot at them but it didn't make them stop. I don't think they've had a feed in a few days… They ripped her to pieces. We killed them but that doesn't change how she died."
He trembled and shivered before her eyes but Padme could hardly believe what she saw… This was Anakin Skywalker, the Imperial Leader, the cold and cruel man who threatened Obi-wan's life, the bully boy from her school… And yet here he was with tears in his eyes over the death of a strange girl. She hadn't seen anyone cry other the fate of a stranger in a very long time. Untimely and violent death had become just another fact of the world these days, most people had hardened their hearts to the lives of others in order to preserve themselves. Padme had thought for sure Anakin was one of them.
Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted a hand to place her palm against his back softly. It was the best comfort her reeling mind could muster up right now. After a moment, Padme built the courage to gently stroke up and down his spine over the coarse, over-worn material of his shirt. "You can't blame yourself for something like that…" She whispered, "save for drawing those things closer to yourself and the others, there was nothing you could have done." Waiting a moment, she added, "it wasn't your fault, Anakin."
He was silent for a long time before he drew her free hand into his and brought her wrist to his warm lips. The contact made her tense until his fingers squeezed hers tightly. "Thank you, Padme…" Anakin's eyes were warm but no less troubled than before. "You should get some sleep." He released her but she remained there for several seconds before pushing up off the sofa with a nod. Yes… Sleep. She should definitely get back to sleep. Not that any tiredness lingered in her eyes or mind anymore, how could it after that? "Goodnight," Anakin called after her as she lingered in the doorway between the two rooms.
"Goodnight, Anakin…" Padme managed to say, tearing her eyes away from the man with a strange heaviness she'd never felt before weighing on her chest. Something unspoken lingered on her lips, words her heart wanted to say but mind hadn't crafted yet. It wasn't easy to talk to him like this, to see this hidden layer beneath the smirk and smug exterior, no, it shattered almost every belief she'd held about this man and something about that frightened her. Finally, she turned toward the bedroom and forced herself to not look back.
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