Note: Anakin's creepiness never sat well with me in the movies, so i decided to change some of his characteristics for the purpose of having a sweet and tender love story. Anakin is less arrogant and has doubts about his own abilities. This makes me able to write their love story much sweeter than I would normally be able to, so I hope you don't mind. Have fun reading my very first story! 3
Chapter 1: Anticipation
Rays of light from Coruscant's sun illuminated the bedroom of Padmé Amidala.
She stared out of the window, still shocked by the explosion that took place on the landing platform a couple of hours ago. Padmé arrived earlier that day to vote against the military creation act in the senate but nearly died because someone tried to assassinate her. The assassin had blown up the ship from which the senator was supposed to arrive. The only thing that had kept her alive was the decision from the head of security, Captain Typho, that one of her handmaidens would act as a decoy while she would dress as a security officer and arrive in a starfighter. It was mostly luck that the blast didn't harm her or the captain. The crew aboard the royal cruiser were not as lucky and died in the cloud of fire and destruction, including her loyal handmaiden Cordé.
Tears started running down her cheeks as she saw the image of her friend's motionless face covered in blood.
It was all her fault that Cordé died. She should have stayed on Coruscant and discussed the past year of galactic politics with her queen via holocom. Instead, she had gone to Naboo to see her family and talk with the queen in person. She had tried to convince captain Typho that it would be unnecessary for Cordé to act as decoy upon her return but to no avail.
Performing the swap with her handmaidens was a fun trick when she needed some time alone or when she couldn't attend a meeting, but when there was real danger, she despised putting one of her loyal handmaidens, her friends, in such a dangerous position.
Padmé could hear a soft knock on the door of her bedroom.
"Come in" she replied softly as she wiped the tears from her face.
Another handmaiden entered the bedroom. "Mila… Padmé…what's wrong?"
"Oh Sabé, it is all my fault," she said while she started sobbing. She couldn't look at her friend knowing that she too could die someday because she had sworn to protect her.
Sabé quickly walked towards Padmé and gently grabbed her hands as she sat beside her on the bed. "Hey, look at me, there is nothing you could have done to prevent this. You had to go back to Coruscant. The vote is too important"
"I shouldn't have gone to Naboo in the first place" Padmé murmured while leaning into Sabé's chest and hugging her tightly.
Although Cordé's death came as a shock to her, Sabé knew that it had an even greater impact on her friend. in an attempt to soothe her she said, "That's not true. You had to take a break from politics and needed to speak with Queen Jamilla about the progress you made in the Senate. Besides, you couldn't have known that this was going to happen".
Relieved that nobody blamed her, Padmé relaxed a little and managed to let out a sigh. "Maybe, but I still can't help but feel guilty"
"I know, and I understand," Sabé whispered as she tried to calm her.
After a couple of minutes of being held by Sabé, the sobbing seized and Padmé pulled back from her embrace, a little embarrassed about her breakdown, and tried to order her thoughts. When she was certain that she had regained control of her emotions, she continued "I'm worried what the attempt on my life was meant to stop me from voting against the military creation act."
"I agree Milady, it has also crossed my mind. Is it a good idea for the handmaidens to look into who could profit from a republic army? If we find anything useful, we should be able to reduce the list of people who want to assassinate you. The chance of finding anything is small but it's worth a shot."
She hesitated before answering. If one of her handmaidens accidentally found the person who wanted to kill her, they could be in great danger. But knowing who could be behind the attack would be very useful information, so she deemed it worth the risk. "It is worth trying. When you can, call a meeting and inform all handmaidens of your plan. Please ask them to be careful. I do not want to lose someone else after today"
"As you wish Milady," Sabé said as a grin crossed her face. "Is there something else that I can do for you?"
She felt tired after worrying about everything, and her mourning for Cordé hadn't helped either. "If you don't mind, I could use a cup of caf."
"Not at all, I'll be right back," her friend said while turning around to walk out of her room.
"Oh and Sabé, please take some rest, you have been working for over twenty hours straight."
Sabé smiled while she nodded her thanks towards her long-time friend. "I will after you have had your caf." Then she left the room, and Padme was once again alone with her thoughts, which drifted off to a conversation she had with chancellor Palpatine.
For her security, the chancellor had placed her under the protection of the Jedi. She initially hadn't agreed, but after he suggested that the Jedi in question would be Obi-Wan Kenobi, she reluctantly gave in. Although she knew Obi-Wan and liked that he was more than capable of having a political argument with her, it was not the main reason why she agreed with the chancellor's request.
During the invasion of Naboo ten years ago, a boy who she only met some days prior managed to blow up the droid control ship from the Trade Federation, and in doing so helped liberate Naboo. Afterward, he went to Coruscant to be trained as a Jedi.
When they first met, he was a slave who worked in the workshop of a mechanics dealer.
The first thing he asked when he saw her was if she was an angel. Padmé suppressed a giggle as she remembered how shocked and embarrassed she felt when Anakin had asked that question. When they eventually had to leave to return to the starcruiser, a sandstorm arrived and Anakin had offered them shelter at his home. He always wanted to help in every way possible, even if it meant risking his life in the process. He even went as far as to give her his room to sleep in when they needed a place to crash. Although the room wasn't as luxurious as she was used to, she appreciated the gesture, as everything was better than the floor. Anakin said he didn't mind as he sometimes slept on the floor at the shop whenever he completed a difficult task, so he didn't mind giving up his bed for a couple of days.
They talked a lot about Naboo because he was amazed by her description of her homeworld, and could hardly imagine the landscapes she described. He didn't know at the time that he was talking to the queen of Naboo, but after he found out, he still treated her like his friend. Almost everyone saw her as the queen of Naboo, and handled her as such, whereas Anakin just saw his friend Padmé with whom he could have a laugh and talk about his fantasies. When he was around, she could forget all the problems she had to solve and just be herself.
She hoped that he became Obi-Wan's padawan after leaving Naboo because it meant that she would see him again this evening. Anakin was still a boy when Padmé last saw him, which was ten years ago. What if he had become a completely different person since the last time she saw him. Would the person she at one time considered one of her best friends still exist? She changed in the past ten years, so he must have changed as well. Of course, he would be a lot older, but how did living as a Jedi change a person? Would he be like other Jedi she had met in her time on Coruscant who were often cryptic, silent, and sometimes arrogant, or was he still the boy she met in Tatooine at his core? Padmé hoped for the latter because she could really use a friend like Anakin who always understands her, and manages to make her laugh. She didn't have enough of that in her busy life.
She didn't hear Sabé enter the room, and smiled as she remembered Anakin's astonished face when he saw the beauty of Naboo for the first time.
Sabé cleared her throat to alert Padmé of her presence.
Padmé jerked as she noticed Sabé standing in the doorframe.
"Milady, what's on your mind?" Sabé asked as Padmé tried to regain her composure.
"Well...eeh...I was thinking about my new Bodyguards." Her cheeks turned a shade of light pink after being caught daydreaming by her handmaiden.
"Oh, what about them?"
"I was thinking about master Kenobi's padawan"
Sabé frowned as this was the last thing she had expected. "You don't even know who he is. What makes him so important that you didn't even hear me open your door which makes enough noise to wake a sleeping Bantha."
"It is the possibility of who he could be that is interesting."
"It sounds to me like you already have someone in mind. Tell me, who do you think it is?"
"Well, when I think about it, only one person comes to mind. Do you still remember Anakin Skywalker?"
"Yes, how could I forget. He was the one who disabled the droid control ship during the invasion."
"He was a very good friend, and I wondered what had happened to him since we last saw him."
"So you want master Kenobi's padawan to be Anakin." Sabé was amused by Padmé's brief look of shock that quickly disappeared because she had managed to guess her thoughts.
"We were good friends, and I can't help but miss him from time to time. I just want to talk with him and know what kind of mischief he has been up to for the past years."
"You know that there is a decent chance that he has been assigned to a master other than master Kenobi?"
"Yes, of course, but I want to see him again so bad." Padmé tried to not sound desperate but failed miserably.
"Worrying about whether or not you will see him this afternoon isn't going to change the outcome." Sabé winked as she left the room to summon the rest of the handmaidens for a meeting.
Padmé sighed as she realized that her friend was once again correct.
She focused her attention on her datapad because the afternoon would come soon enough, and thinking about it wouldn't make time pass any quicker.
The quarters in the Jedi temple were small and usually empty, but not Anakin's. His room was full of droid parts and tools. Near his bed stood a holopicture from his mom next to one of him and Padmé during the Victory celebration on Naboo. He was studying the latter while laying on his bed, waiting for his master to be ready to tell him that they were leaving.
He couldn't believe that he was going to see her again after such a long time. He nearly jumped from excitement when the council announced their next mission but managed to look like a calm Jedi on the outside. He knew that he hadn't convinced Obi-Wan about his lack of excitement, because shortly thereafter he received another one of his master's lectures regarding attachments. He didn't think that being attached to someone was a bad thing and that it could help get someone through a rough time. His master had other ideas about the subject, and they often ended up debating for hours.
He missed his mom a lot, and the only person with whom he could talk about her was Obi-Wan. His master of course tried to distract him so that he would forget about her, but it never helped.
There were some people in the temple with whom he could get along well, but he didn't have any real friends with whom he could share his free time. Everyone was aware that Anakin could be the Chosen One, and the thought of talking to such an important person scared off a lot of people his age. The Jedi who were a little older seemed less intimidated by his presence, but even they were nervous when talking to him.
The only real friend he ever had was Padmé, and that was a long time ago. He looked at the picture he had of them on his nightstand and instantly found her. When he had a difficult time and didn't want to be disturbed, he often locked himself in his room and looked at his pictures. It never ceases to amaze him how beautiful Padmé looked.
It was a shame that he had to use such an old holo because he would rather have an image of only padmé in its place, but that would be very inappropriate and his master would get even more suspicious on top of that, so this one had to do.
He once saw an article on the holonews about her, and with it, a picture of her smiling proudly because her motion had passed the senate. He had to encrypt his connection before reading the article, which he had to do outside of the temple to not gain the attention of his master. That was a couple of years ago, and since then he had never had enough time to do so again. He roughly knew what she looked like now, but when you see someone in person, they usually look very different.
From the headlines in the holonews he had picked up some information about her from time to time, but those little pieces of information stopped coming after Nute Gunray created the Separatists. That was the only thing the news wrote about as of late. The threat that the Separatists posed to the Republic was increasing, and it even worried some of the masters on the Jedi council.
Anakin closed his eyes as he thought of what would happen this afternoon. Whenever he was alone, he sometimes thought about what it would be like to see her again. Now, it was finally going to happen.
Suddenly a disturbing thought popped up in his head. What if she doesn't recognize me, or remember me? But he quickly shoved it away as he knew that she wouldn't recognize him at first. He had grown a lot since the last time he saw her, and his face looked completely different. The only things that resembled his old self were his blonde hair and his blue eyes. It would not be the end of the world when she didn't recognize him, as he sometimes hadn't even recognized himself when he looked in a mirror. What he did want was for her to remember that they were very good friends, and to be able to talk with her about everything he struggled with which he couldn't tell Obi-Wan. Padmé was always very smart, kind and had helped him when he missed his mother just after leaving Tatooine. He needed someone to talk to who understood what he was going through and didn't judge him about his attachments.
Seeing Padmé again wasn't the only thing that was making him nervous, because he would be responsible for her security together with Obi-Wan for the foreseeable future. He couldn't stand the thought of her being hurt or killed because he was incapable of protecting her.
Anakin heard a knock on the door followed by Obi Wan's voice. "Anakin, are you ready to leave?"
His heart jumps as he realizes that their reunion would be in a couple of minutes. He quickly sprung to his feet as he grabbed his lightsaber from his nightstand. "I'm coming, master." He smiled as the moment he was waiting for had finally arrived.
Hope you enjoyed Chapter 1!
If you got any suggestions, or noticed errors feel free to comment :)
Chapter 2 will be posted soon, so check in regularly for updates.
