Anakin looks once more into the mirror, fussing with his semi-formal clothes, and smoothes out his unruly hair, until it appears to be a semblance of being under control. He glances at the chrono noticing that he has about ten minutes before they should leave for the restaurant. Sighing, he leaves his room, and goes down the hall to wait for Tahiri, wondering once more just how he got roped into this.
He frowns slightly as he notices Jacen, Zekk and his parents all sitting in there already, and he wonders if this is some type of joke being played on him and Tahiri.
Leia looks up from her datapad and smiles at him, an odd sparkle in her eyes. "You look quite handsome tonight Anakin. I hope the two of you have fun."
Anakin drops into a chair facing the hallway, and looks over to her. "Thanks mom." Then he turns to Zekk. "So, Jaina never did tell me, what came up so that you couldn't take these reservations?"
Zekk who was drinking a glass of blue milk, starts coughing and sputtering at that moment, and Anakin turns his head to notice Jacen trying his best to not laugh.
And he frowns as Gizmo does not even try to not laugh.
"What is it? What are you all doing?"
Han stands up and glares at the other two boys, and then kneels by Anakin. "There's nothing going on son. Now stop thinking so much, you'll turn into Jacen."
As Zekk laughs out loud at that, Han lowers his voice to a whisper. "Make sure you dance with her at the restaurant, and that you kiss her when you get home okay."
Anakin mutely nods his head, wondering what his dad is talking about while Han just smiles, stands back up and returns to his seat, winking once at Leia. Anakin glances at the chrono, noting that it is now two minutes before Jaina said they would have to leave. Anakin frowns slightly as he stands up, wiping his hands on his robes. Jacen's voice has a taunting quality to it. "Nervous? Sit down and I'll tell you a joke."
Anakin looks down at him for a second, and then starts pacing.
Then there is a noise of an opening door, and Anakin turns to look once more down the hall. Watching as Tahiri steps out of Jaina's room, followed by Jaina and Tenel Ka.
For his part, all Anakin can do is give her an open-mouthed stare. Gone are the baggy robes and the comfortable jumpsuit. Gone is the mass of unruly blonde curls. Gone are all those little physical cues that he has long associated with his best friend.
In their place is what he considers an angel.
He recognizes the dress as one Jaina wore earlier in the year, but he doesn't remember her looking quite like that in it. It is a simple form-fitting black strapless dress that on Jaina dragged the floor when she wasn't in high heels, but on Tahiri falls perfectly, even though as she is standing there, Anakin can see the tips of her bare toes sticking out from beneath it. Her blonde hair has been tamed, and was plaited and stacked, and done something else with that Anakin didn't know, but which he liked. Around her neck and on her ears are small glittering stones, which seem to highlight the sparkles in her eyes.
All in all, he is mesmerized. After a second, he is aware of Jacen standing in front of him, discretely pressing on his chin. It takes another second for the words Jacen is whispering to him to process, "Stare if you want, but for Force-sakes close your mouth."
Then Jacen moves from in front of him and stands beside him. As Tahiri starts walking into the room, Anakin notices the slit of the dress. The one that goes up to her thigh. The one which routinely shows a flash of her shapely leg as she steps.
He looks up from her leg into her eyes, and sees an emotion that he doesn't quite understand there. Then she is standing in front of him, and he can smell the scent she has on. Not her usual scent, but a different one, it's not flowery and it's not sweet, but at the same time it's both.
Her voice startles him. "Hi"
"Oh, uhm, hi."
She smiles at him, and in the background he can see his dad shaking his head. Then focusing once more on her, he asks, "Are you ready to go?"
She nods her head, and turns to smile at Jaina as Anakin leads them from the room.
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Six hours later finds Leia alone in the living room watching the door. Her foot tapping angrily as she waits for her youngest son and his best friend to get home from their date. She likes the girl, she likes her a lot, but she has to wonder what they have been doing for six hours. She glances once more at the chrono noting that it is now half an hour past midnight. She paces the room slightly, noticing the batch of Mogwai in a pile near the door to the balcony, playing some arcane game amongst themselves with a small yellow ball.
A slight thump at the front door attracts her attention, and she focuses the Force and feels the two teenagers outside. She waits a moment more, expecting them to come in and when they don't she can feel her anger start to get the better of her.
Stomping to the door, she presses her thumb against the door plate, and steps back as the door opens, and the two teenagers who were leaning against it fall into the room. Leia cringes slightly as Tahiri's head thumps hard against the floor, and she lets out a short cry of pain. She sits the package of leftovers she is holding off to the side to rub at the spot on her head where she knows she'll have a bump in the morning.
Anakin looks up from where he's laying on top of Tahiri at his mom, a sheepish grin forming on his face. "Oh. Hey mom, uhm what are you still doing up?"
As the realization of just how they were leaning against the door, and what they were doing while leaning that way crosses her mind, she glares down at them. "Waiting up for the two of you. Do you know it's been six hours since you left?"
Leia shakes her head at the duel apologies, and then looks down at them again. "We'll talk about this in the morning; for now the both of you go to bed."
She stands in the hallway and watches as Anakin goes into his room, and comes out a second later with a change of clothes, and then he heads into the refresher to change. Tahiri walks that way, and then turns around and rushes back to Leia. She throws her arms around her and whispers in Leia's ear. "Thanks for everything Mrs. Solo, I had lots of fun tonight."
Leia can't help but smile at the young girl as she goes into Anakin's room, closing the door behind her. When Anakin comes out of the refresher, carrying his clothes from this evening, Leia stops him and takes them from him. "I'll deal with these; you go to sleep on the couch."
Then Leia disappears into her room, her anger cooling off now that everyone was safely home.
Anakin lies down on the couch, happily thinking about this evening, the dances he shared with Tahiri, the meal they shared, and especially of how her lips tasted as they kissed in the hallway.
What neither Anakin nor Tahiri nor Leia thinks about is the pile of Mogwai playing their game by the balcony door. Also forgotten is the package of leftovers from Tahiri's meal.
As soon as Anakin finally drifts off to sleep, the Mogwai leave their game, and go to the package, and open it up. The Mogwai with the large white stripe of fur looks at the various foods and smiles mischievously as he says, "Yum, yums."