This chapter was hard, honestly almost had me beat- only ended up deciding to post for my awesome reviewers Lecordonbleu28, LynaHaber, Reyofsunshine06xx, Deanna13, aigneis, Youngjustice11, trainerb, CEFox7, JustStellar, Machiavelliwasright, and all the fantastic guests.
To answer questions, yes, Obi-Wan will be here soon, but I thought you guys deserved this Vádme chapter first . . . with 1000 extra words for my reviewers :)
Padme woke to a light breeze tickling her skin. She sighed, snuggling into the comforting heat curled around her, desiring nothing more than to lie there forever in her little bubble of peace.
Grabbing the hands wrapped around her, she brought them to her chest - both the metal and the flesh - squeezing tenderly. There was a hitch of breath, and then the grip on her small frame suddenly tightened, the body behind reflexively inching closer to hers. She gave a small yelp of surprise, turning around in the embrace for a playful tease.
Though his grasp on her remained secure and unyielding, the eyes of her lover were still screwed securely shut with sleep, his change in breathing subsiding once more to slow exhales and his heart continuing its steady thud.
A light fluttering grew in Padme's chest, making her tingle with warmth. He was still asleep, yet his body unwittingly knew it wanted to be closer to her . . .
She lifted her hand, lightly stroking the scar running over his right eye, then moving to smooth out the lines on his forehead- clenched from the burden that was so constantly put on him.
Sometimes Padme wanted to curse at the title of "Chosen One", bash it to pieces and take her beloved far away where no one could touch him. She hated it, hated the stress he was put under and the pressure of the galaxy, hated the way he was treated, whether it was with challenge or spite or even idolization. She didn't need the great hero; she wanted him as Anakin, only Anakin- without the glory, just as himself.
Padme wished he knew that.
That he could hold her and know that she accepted him just as he was, with all his flaws and vulnerabilities, without anything else.
She wished their duty wasn't their reality: that for once they could set aside what was required of them and make their own destiny, one where it was just him and her and the baby, no laws or expectations.
Just them and their love.
But dreams weren't reality.
Sighing, she pushed his blond locks away from his face, pushing up closer to him and laying her head on his shoulder, her lips near his ear. "Ani . . . "
He gave a low groan, the sound rumbling lazily up his throat before he shifted just a fraction of an inch. "Mhhm?"
Padme hid a smile. "Ani, you have to be at the Temple soon." She spoke as persuasively as she was able in the circumstances, dragging herself away from his tempting heat lest her already crumbling will give way entirely.
"No," he mumbled sleepily, pulling her firmly back into his warm chest, his eyes squeezing all the more firmly shut.
She rolled her eyes, amused. "Anakin, we can't stay here forever."
"Yes, we can," he murmured, his breath in her hair sending shivers down her spine and inducing an involuntary giggle. "My beautiful wife is going to lie here forever and let me hold her until the Sith take down the Temple. Then . . . " he yawned slowly. "Maybe I'll get up."
Padme laughed, attempting to pull herself unsuccessfully out of his strong grasp. "Anakin, come on, stop playing around."
He finally opened his eyes, the bright blue cerulean not hazed with sleep but now sparkling mischievously. "Oh, I can show you playing around," he whispered teasingly, leaning forward to bite lightly at her neck. "What say you, Angel, we stay in bed- just a little longer."
Gasping out a laugh, Padme pushed at his hard chest. "Ani, that's not going to work."
She glared at him playfully, doing her best to disguise her sudden shortness of breath- but he saw right through her, crossing his arms in mock arrogance and laying his head on them, smirking handsomely. "I know you too well, Padme, you can't pretend things with me. No one else knows you like I do."
As if from a distant world, she felt a faint tingle of recognition at the statement- but in the humor of the moment, it vanished faster than a light breeze in humid air, Padme unable to help the smile that erupted over her features at the obviously twitching corners of his mouth. "Well, I know you better than you know yourself," she argued, raising a delicate brow at him.
Giving a pout, he flounced back down onto the bed, flinging a dramatic arm over his face. "Ah, I should've known better than to argue with a politician- and a clever one at that. I see your ploy now, although sadly too late." He flung up his hands in surrender, groaning. "It worked, I'm awake. You'll be rid of me soon."
Padme giggled lightly. "Anakin, I could never want you gone." Sadness suddenly rushed over her, diminishing the glow alight on her features. "You know how much I wish you could stay; that I could know-" she paused, swallowing, " . . . know that you would be back."
He peeked over at her, his eyes so blue she felt she wanted to somehow sink into their depths and stay there, forever cocooned in his love and never resurfacing. "Angel, the Sith couldn't keep me away," he said quietly. "No matter where I'm sent to go, no matter what happens, I'll come back to you. I promise."
She smiled, blinking back tears. "You can't promise that."
He gripped her hand, bringing it tenderly into his grasp and placing it onto his chest, where his heartbeat thumped powerfully under her touch. "This heart belongs to you, and will always find a way to beat for you," he said gently.
"I promise."
Promise . . .
Padme drifted slowly back into consciousness, becoming aware of something plush underneath her cheek. She was cozy, so cozy . . . yet for some reason, there was a strange sense of forlornness - a part of her that oddly wanted to escape desperately back into the memory - a nagging hint of dread in the very recess of her mind, pushing at the warm blanket of contentedness around her. She felt as if it had been lifetimes since she'd last done this, felt so serene . . . but that wasn't right. It shouldn't feel strange; everything was familiar, the silkiness of the sheets and the sinking cloud-like feeling of the mattress and the sweet scent around her . . .
Anakin must have been here recently . . .
Anakin?
Padme jolted awake, jerking straight up and looking around, trying to make sense of her surroundings in the darkness. Everything came rushing back, dousing the embers of peace and stirring her up into a confused panic.
Not Anakin, Vader . . .
But if she wasn't in their bed in 500 Republica, where was she? This wasn't where she'd fallen asleep, she was sure of that. She'd laid on the floor deliberately to spite Vader for his statement about the bed being his- but strangely her back was no longer aching, softness replacing the hard wood that had pressed against her sore muscles.
Padme was comfortable.
Which meant he had moved her.
What? To the bed?
Padme scoffed to herself. There was no possible way Vader - an utterly selfish being - would have done such a thing, something so selfless, without reward or an ulterior motive.
Chills ran down her spine, chasing away the last tingle of warm still lingering on her skin.
What had he done to her while she was unconscious?
A loud grumble of her stomach yanked her out of her ruminations, the sound bringing a scowl to her features. She'd forgotten about trivial things like hunger, utterly paralyzed: not just at what he'd almost done, but at what he had become. The entire day had Padme powerless to thought or movement - she was only able to lie there, trying to accept something that would not sink in and was so unfathomable that it left her mind twisted up into a jumbled mess in the unsuccessful pursuit of sanity.
Somehow, she'd hoped it wouldn't come to this, though deep down knowing it was inane to think such a thing, a desperate notion. She was still human; still needed food. It didn't matter how much she didn't want to see him.
If he had wanted to break her, so he had. She could see now, what he was.
And her heart could do naught but break all over again for Anakin Skywalker- for the beautiful man he had once been, for the horrible loss at his seeming death, and for the final defeat . . . the defeat of finding the one she had most loved now one of the things she most hated- utterly lost.
She didn't have the energy to fight anymore.
All she could do now was find a way to protect her children from her fate- do what was needed to make sure they were never subject to the demon he had become.
The only way to do that was to keep herself alive, keep fighting for them, even if her heart was dead; and that meant even though she never wanted to look him in the face again, she would have to get something to eat and make sure that Luke and Leia were all right.
Padme practically fell off the side of the bed, stumbling through the darkness until her gripping fingers managed to find the doorknob.
It was no longer locked- not that she was surprised.
Drawing her shoulders back in a show of confidence and taking a deep breath, Padme pulled open the door, bracing herself for Vader's rage, or even his games.
Nothing. There was . . silence?
Apprehensively, Padme made her way forward, her eyes raking her surroundings for something, sure she would turn to see angry yellow eyes glowing out of the darkness or crossed arms and a haughty smirk at her weakness. Yet she was faced with only blackness, or the vague shapes of furniture barely visible in a few dim lights. All at once she realized that the air did not contain the icy chill characteristic to Vader's cold presence; on the contrary, it was almost warm.
Where was Vader?
Padme quickly brushed away the confusion, redirecting her train of thought. It didn't matter where he was; the fact stood that he wasn't there, and this was her chance to not only obtain something to eat - without having to even encounter the monster - but to find and check on her children. She quickened her pace, the former hesitation falling away in her resolve.
Padme was rushing through the establishments now, clicking every switch she could find, desperately punching at buttons and trying every doorknob in sight. She would find them, now, and they would escape before Vader even came back . . .
Her frustration grew as the first few flickers of light revealed only plain, undecorated rooms, devoid of life. Surely Vader's quarters couldn't be that big. He couldn't have been so heartless as to take Luke and Leia away . . . surely he wanted them close, too? They must be there, somewhere, somewhere . . .
Padme's eyes suddenly widened, her breath inadvertently catching in her throat.
Vader lay sprawled on the couch, his long limbs splayed out so they were particularly falling off the cushions, an arm flung carelessly over his face like a frustrated teenager trying to sleep.
It was Vader; but it wasn't.
An image flashed into her mind of her dream, the memory, Anakin's arm flung over his face in the same manner, his chest convulsing in laughter and his cerulean eyes sparkling with mirth.
A pang struck Padme deep in the chest, her guard going down and her eyes growing heavy. Unwittingly, she drew closer, drawn to the handsome, blond-haired man whose features she knew better than her own. He looked so different now,the anger that had perpetually marred his handsome features diluted in the innocence of sleep. His eyebrows were still drawn tightly, his expression disturbed, but he didn't look like Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith anymore. He looked like a man . . . a familiar one. If Padme closed her eyes she could just imagine he wasn't Vader . . . that if he opened his eyes they would be bright blue and teasing . . . that he was . . .
Padme couldn't help reaching her hand forward, moving absentmindedly to push a curl from his cheek like she had so often done-
His eyes snapped open, the yellow yanking Padme back to reality and banishing the image of the man she loved. She flinched at the sight, snatching her hand back.
"W-What are you doing?" he asked harshly, obviously confused and uncomfortable, his voice still rough with sleep.
Padme stiffened. She did not hear the unusual vulnerability of his still drowsy tone, nor see the odd flash of relief in his unguarded gaze.
She could only see the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Without the warmth of her fantasies Padme was left cold and hurting, bitterness and resentment rising for the yellow monster that had chased away her blue eyed lover. "What are you doing?" she said flatly. "Guarding the kitchen so I would have to beg, and promise to be quiet and submissive in order to eat?"
Something unrecognizable flickered in the depth of yellow, but it was gone as soon as it came, flitting away as if it had never existed.
"No," he said shortly.
"Oh, really?" Padme raised her hands and then let them fall limply back to her sides, her voice tired. "I'm sorry, did you want me to agree to willingly sleep with you, since you didn't appreciate me resisting last night?"
"Padme, I-"
"I get it," she said wearily. "I'm supposed to be a better wife one that loves you. Now, if you don't mind, I was just leaving to go back to bed."
She turned robotically to walk away - her body moving of its own accord and her mind empty with disappointment - wanting nothing more than to be away from him
"Padme-!"
The cry was unfamiliar- almost desperate, anguished.
Shocked, her feet ceased their movement, her body clenching inadvertently and turning before she had even the made the decision to do so.
Padme stared, the disobedience of her limbs forgotten, unable to rip her gaze from him.
His expression were wild with something- she did not know with what, but something, and against her will she felt weakness surge up in her chest for the man before her.
"I- Aren't you hungry?"
She studied him for a long time, searching for his true intentions- but he only looked at her with beseeching eyes, a strange swirling pool of gold and-
A-And blue . . .
She nodded mutely, the words of confirmation meaning to come out but her lips refusing to allow them pathway, oddly heavy and unmoving.
Something passed over his gaze- but then it was gone, and he was heading into the kitchen without a glance back or even acknowledgement that she had . She followed him silently, pulling back a chair at the counter with a loud scrape and settling wordlessly onto it.
A tap at her elbow pulled her mind out of its haze. Padme blinked, startled to see a starfruit hovering before her. Her eyes immediately flickered over to Vader, but his back was still to her, shuffling through a few cabinets. Warily, she plucked it from the air, still regarding his frame as she slowly took a bite. Vader seemed not to notice - or care - his hooded head directed away from her as if she wasn't there, and the only sounds her quiet nunchucks and the slam of cabinet doors and items on the counter.
Padme had just finished - and was debating what to do with the core - when it was suddenly snatched from her fingers by a gloved hand, followed by a loud clatter. She gaped, mystified at the platter before her- her favorite salad and rice dish with Shurra fruit flavored syrup.
She raised a bewildered eyebrow. "You can't cook."
He looked at her. "Maybe I learned to cook this one dish."
"You have Triple-Zero, you don't need to cook. Besides, you don't like this dish; it's too sweet for you," she stated matter-of-factly.
Padme stared at his impassive features, her mind spinning in confusion. She held his gaze for a second too long before dropping it quickly to the floor.
"Why are you doing this?" she whispered.
He was silent.
"Vader?"
Something seemed to break in him, his temper flaring.
"I know you think I'm a monster, Padme!" Vader snapped, his yellow eyes furious and agitated. "And yes, I am one! But is it so hard to believe that maybe I care enough about you to not let you starve to death?" He lowered his voice, walking closer. "Is it so hard to believe that maybe I became a monster to keep you from dying?"
The expression in Padme's steady brown orbs was bleak, almost sad.
"Is is so hard to believe that I might think you have ulterior motives, to keep me compliant?" she asked quietly.
Vader huffed angrily, turning and storming out of the room.
Would the people reading review . . . pretty please?
85 reviews to the next chapter . . . here's to wishing if only people liked this enough that they would "multiply like rabbits" Lecordonbleu28 ;)
