SEQ CHAPTER h r 1Author's note: Wow! First, thank you to all the readers that still remember this story and are still willing to review. And, second, to all the new readers, glad you like! Sorry again for the lack of beta reading ...
Now, if only I can get ff.n to do the mark up codes right. Hum.
Part Thirteen (5/08/04)
Although I can never prove whether it was the burning beam of the sun's rays on my face or the throbbing headache that woke me, I would venture a guess towards the latter.
Oh, how my head hurt.
I uneasily put my hand upon my forehead and groaned. If there was one bad thing about getting absolutely drunk it would be the hangover, I surmised as I rubbed my face gently.
"And so I wait, waiting for you ..."
The unfamiliar singing caused my eyes to snap open in an instant. I didn't recognize the song, I didn't recognize the singer, and, of course, naturally, I didn't recognize the room.
My curious eyes wandered about for a few minutes, mesmerized by the new surroundings. It was a simple place - a bedroom constructed out of the same rock as the inn. A few holopics were spread along the wall, but my eyes were itching far too badly to make out the forms that were represented in them. I could also see a dresser covered with various glass bottles.
I rubbed my eyes again and attempted to sit up. My head must have made a large whooshing sound as I rose, but only I alone was able to hear it. I suppressed the urge to throw up and focused solely on breathing. The need subsided and then I realized just how thirsty I truly was.
How much had I drunk last night?
Well, I supposed, it was enough it get me from the tavern into this room, shirtless, and into that girl's bed.
'That girl' was a pretty little brunette wearing a lose tunic that came down to her knees. She had just walked into the room, still dancing to the inaudible music in her head. She stopped when she saw that I was awake. Hopping on the bed, she greeted me with a quick peck on the lips.
"How'd you sleep?" she asked pleasantly, wrapping her arms around my neck and sitting on my thighs. She tilled her sweet, rounded face and smiled.
My head was pounding so violently that it nearly sent me into a dizzy spell, and I could feel the blood leaving my stomach and rushing up to further overwhelm my brain. Nonetheless, I tried to imitate her smile.
"Fine," I answered, wondering if she could smell the alcohol on my breath, for I certainly smelled it on hers.
Her grin grew wider and she kissed me yet again. This time the full force of her lips crushed down upon my own. I accepted her embrace with such an urge that I had actually surprised myself slightly. Now if only I could remember her name.
I broke contact and stared into the girl's deep brown eyes, searching, but her identity eluded me. I couldn't recall anything about last night except walking out of the inn and deciding to get drunk. A pang of guilt hit me when I realized that I had left Padmé for the entire night without so much as telling her where I was heading.
My face must have held a negative reaction to this thought because my new cohort touched my cheek gently with the tips of her figures.
"Are you all right, love?" she asked affectionately.
I decided to tell her the truth and bear the chance of being thrown out of her room without first finding my clothes. I swallowed harshly; my throat was unbelievably dry.
"I don't remember very much," I admitted, "I think I had too much to drink."
Her smile fell and she looked down in shame. She unraveled herself from my embrace and slid off the bed. I truly felt bad for hurting her feelings, but, if I can avoid it, I never lie, especially to women that I became freely involved with. I didn't often see the point in foolish masquerades, as the majority of my public life was a farce to begin with.
"We met at a cantina on B and Two in Sector Eighteen," she said softly, answering my unspoken question. She refused to look at me, instead her eyes focused on the holopics. "I work as a maid there. We talked for a while, then I offered for you to spend the night." She stopped for a moment and sighed dejectedly.
"I'm sure I whole-heartedly agreed," I said, wondering why the poor girl was so morose. She was quite stunning for a barmaid and it was difficult to believe that she would have to wheel home drunk boys to have a relationship.
"I don't usually behave that way," she said as if directly answering my thought. "I think I was hoping that, if we could pretend that this was something other than it actually was, I could still retain some shred of self respect."
"Oh," I answered. I liked this girl. I wasn't sure if it was because of her beauty or the manner she used in expressing her feelings, for they both pleased me. "I'm Anakin."
She looked back at me, trying to judge the level of my sincerity. I attempted a lame smile and waited for her to reply. Her face had reddened from the initial embarrassment of the situation, but she was calming down somewhat now. She sat down on the bed once more, this time only next to me instead of on me.
"Saché," she said.
I nodded and we stared at each other in awkward silence for a few moments more. I had wanted to keep my head thoughtless, but it was nearly impossible given that whole mess.
It had been a while since I gone to a girl's place for the night, I had to admit, but it wasn't an unusual event for me to do so. You know the phrase "girl in every port" used to talk about freelance spice merchants? Well, you could say that about me, minus the concept of it being the same girl per port.
As a young and attractive race star, the amorous, playboy attitude had been expected of me since not long after puberty. Maecenas didn't mind it, it got me out of his place, and, hey, it made me forget about the hell that was my life. Benefits all around.
Then how come I felt so guilty as I stared into Saché's wide, brown eyes? That question began to haunt my thoughts until the answer swam up into my conscious.
They were so much like Padmé's.
"I have to go," I said suddenly, jumping up. Upon vaulting from the mattress, I began searching for my clothes. I spotted my shirt near the foot of the bed, not far from one over-turned boot.
Saché watched as I dressed and, as near as I could tell from the corner of my eye, had a small pout on her face. I was feeling absolutely awful at this point - now that I realized the exact reason why my intoxicated self had courted this particular girl last night - and couldn't bare to look at her directly.
"You can stay, you know," she said, hopeful. "I know this little diner a few blocks down. We could catch a late breakfast or perhaps an early lunch?"
I stopped my garment hunting and faced her. My overwhelming guilt was completely replaced an even more mind-numbing fear.
"What time did you say it was?" I asked, preying that she was simply mistaken.
She raised her eyebrows slightly, confused by my changing reactions.
"Late morning," she answered, confirming her former statement.
"Blast!" I nearly yelled as I began to throw on my shirt and pants. Maecenas is going to kill me, I repeated to myself as I got dressed. Not only was in far past dawn, but I also had an appointment for a practice run with the pod at noon.
And, unlike many others, when I said, "Maecenas is going to kill me," I figured it to be the truth. There would be a beating at the very least.
"Are you all right?" Saché asked in a concerned tone. "Do you have someplace to be?" She sounded disappointed, but I didn't have the time to console her.
"I'm a podracer," I said as I slipped on my boots. "I've got a run today. I think I'm going to be late."
My head picked the perfect time to remind me of the hangover, but I didn't have the time to ask Saché for a pain medication. Now fully clothed, I took a second to rub my temples with the tips of my thumb, willing the throbbing to stop.
"Are we going to see each other again?" she asked in a quiet voice, as if she were trying not to sound too forward.
"Um, yeah," I said uneagerly. "Come down to my hanger after the race tomorrow. It's the blue and white striped flag."
As I look back on that statement, I'm not really sure why I had said it. Was it because I didn't want to hurt the girl's feelings and dash her hopes? Was it because I actually felt attracted to her beyond the fact that she looked like Padmé? Or was it because of the fact that my brain was about to seep out of my skull and there was no thought left in it?
Again, probably the latter.
Despite the fact that my vision was slightly blurred, I managed to find my way out Saché's door and down to the street. I looked around, attempting not to be blinded by the rather direct noon sun. My stomach twisted and I was grateful only because I didn't have to walk underneath the heat of Tatoo I and II.
And there was a problem still: although the streets and buildings were similar to those surrounding the inn, nothing looked familiar. I remembered the alley and the tavern, but I certainly didn't know where either was in relation to Saché's apartment. With just under an hour before my appointment, I was totally lost in the middle of a large city.
I wasn't usually the type of person to panic in that sort of situation; normally I liked wandering about aimlessly and discovering new places and people. But if I missed the time slot, I wouldn't be able to race, and then I wouldn't be able to enter the championship. No championship, no prize money. No money makes Maecenas very angry.
I darted through block after block, looking for anything that would point me in the right direction. When one route became clearly false, I turned around and took another until I was covered in a layer of sweat. When I no longer could remember which road went where or even which held Saché's building, I decided to take pause and lean my forehead against a sidewall, allowing the stone to cool me.
"Blast, blast," I said out load, cursing myself for being so stupid. Why had I stayed out so late? Why did I have so many drinks?
"Anakin?" I heard a familiar voice say a few meters away. I looked up, hoping for a miracle and that somebody had found me.
And, like a dream, Padmé appeared before me. She was fully cloaked, despite the midday heat, and I probably wouldn't have been able to recognize her if she hadn't said anything.
"Pad-" I began, but she rushed up and put one finger over my lips before I could finish. I was a little surprised by the movement, but was far from being displeased by it.
She glanced up at me through the folds of her hood, but those beautiful eyes were unreadable.
"Maecenas sent me out looking for you," she told me. Her voice held a bit of irritation, but no real anger.
"How'd you find me, anyway?" I asked, surprised that she could navigate Theed's streets so well.
"He said to meet him near the inn's entrance," she said, ignoring my question altogether. She grabbed my hand and led me down the road in curious silence. I followed her, trusting her judgment, but it felt strange. The hand that griped mine was icy and moist, while the other attempted to help her cover her hooded face even further.
"Is everything all right?" I asked, beginning to worry at this behavior. She had been reserved and distant ever since we left Malastare. I thought I had gotten her to open up back at the inn, just as she seemed to take a liking to me the morning after I had won the sabacc game, but she was yet again lost in her mysterious shroud of stolidity.
She said nothing as we dodged into an abandoned alleyway and through several twists and turns. I was completely confused by her uncanny ability to simultaneously find the seemingly quickest route while adhering to the less-populated intersections.
"Padmé," I began again, "please. Tell me what's going on." She gripped my hand harder and yanked with more force than I thought possible, causing me to fall forward a few steps. In the process, she sped up even more.
"Hey," I groaned, trying to maintain my balance. "Could you please take it easy?"
I didn't honestly expect her to respond, so I just matched her pace and sighed to let her know how distressed I was.
I could only walk silently and wonder why Padmé was appearing to be so cross with me - if that was indeed what was going on. The first and most logical explanation was that she somehow found out about my night with Saché, but that was unlikely. She possibly could have been still vexed at my reaction and hastily retreat from our room yesterday. But she knew I was just upset and I hadn't been overtly mean. Why would that make her angry?
I stared ahead at the back of her hood, my brow knitting in contemplation.
"If I did something, I'm sorry," I finally managed to say. I thought that would cover both possibilities equally well.
"Anakin," Padmé hissed, turning around. She looked straight at me; those eyes were now filled with annoyance. "Be quiet."
That was not what I was going for, to be sure.
"Huh?" I asked, confused. "Why?"
We were in the middle of a huge street in a rather large metropolis. People stood all around us, going about their day completely unresponsive to the affairs of one young, albeit foreign couple in their midst. I felt safe there; it was clean, bright, and, unlike most podracing planets, very human. Why was Padmé so jumpy?
She mumbled something and continued to pull me along. Thankfully, before my smashed figures became broken, we reached the inn. Maecenas was standing near the front, next to our speeder, just like Padmé had predicted.
And he looked really upset. I groaned.
"Skywalker," he grunted loudly at the precise point we came into hearing range, "I know this is a different, strange, and wonderful new planet, but what part of DAWN seems to be lacking here?"
I gritted my teeth harshly, remembering my sunrise curfew. I pondered whether I should speak in my defense. Sometimes silence was the best route, and it would work especially well in this case - seeing as I'd rather not tell Maecenas about my evening activities when Padmé was so near.
I bit my lip and looked down at my feet in submission, waiting for Maecenas to finish his rant.
"I suppose you think that, since you have a run today, I'll let this little slip go, don't you?" he said, beginning a familiar routine between the two of us. "Well, the first race isn't 'til tomorrow night. You'll have plenty of time to look healed before then."
My limbs froze at his statement. Not only did I not even remember the night that was going to cost me so dearly, feel guilty about sleeping with a girl that wasn't Padmé, and had to do a practice run with a hangover, but I also was going to be beat.
Blast it all to hell, I thought.
"Well, then," I answered with all the sarcasm I could muster at the moment. "Let's just hope that you don't have some nasty old woman on the sidelines waiting for a night out. My backside might not be in the mood."
He smacked me with the palm of his hand. It wasn't exactly a gentle hit, but it didn't send me flying to the ground, either. A fair trade, in my opinion.
"Let's get going before we get any later," he growled and headed towards the landspeeder that my pod was hitched to. I rolled my eyes and followed without compliant. But Padmé remained standing still, looking at the two of us with wide eyes.
"Do I have to come?" she whispered, her voice barely audible above the street traffic.
"What girlie?" Maecenas hissed, not wanting his indignation to be interpreted. He stopped abruptly half way in between the door and the speeder, causing me to nearly run into his back, and stared angrily at poor Padmé.
"I think she wants to stay here," I said for her. I was slowly gaining my self-confidence back. I was going to need it for controlling the pod.
"Oh, no," Maecenas answered. "You're coming. Deal."
She nodded her hooded head softly and climbed into the speeder with us.