Thank you to my amazing betas, ktyuza and 7xcookiex7
In the previous chapter:
Anakin Skywalker, the Production Control manager at the Tesla factory near the town of Arlington, had a terrible weekend in which, among other things, he had a heated argument with his sister, Ahsoka, and met an annoying uptown girl called Padmé. On Monday evening, Anakin received several texts from Ahsoka, in which she let him know that her biological parents-a couple addicted to heroin and other substances-had forced her to go to their house. After a physical fight with them, Anakin brought Ahsoka home. Now, Ahsoka and Anakin have to deal with their own emotional turmoil. Seeking solace in routine, Anakin has trouble in taking an optimistic outlook. Meanwhile, Padmé struggles with her own insecurities.
CHAPTER 2
How you look at it is pretty much how you'll see it
(Rasheed Ogunlaru)
…
She could pinpoint the exact moment the first ray of sun shone over the hills of Arlington. She wasn't paying particular attention to her surroundings, let alone the rotation of the Earth, but as Ahsoka was sitting by herself on the sofa, wrapped around a fuzzy blanket, her mind was void of any thoughts or images. The TV was unnecessary, her phone was off. Ahsoka had been sleeplessly sitting in the living room since 3:30 a.m., completely uninvolved with the passing of time. There was a private comfort in the darkness which had been surrounding her, a poetic numbness that only the quietness of the night conjured, mixed with a bit of self-loathing she had been indulging in for the past few hours. However, when that first ray found its way through the broken blinds in the living room window and struck one of her slippers on the floor next to the old couch, she knew that it was time to get back on her feet and start over.
She wasn't sure she would be able to.
All too suddenly, memories from the previous day took shots at her brain in the most tyrannous assault. Her parents standing by the school entrance. Her confused friends. Their disappointed looks when she told them she wouldn't join them at the mall. The loud cars passing by. The loud chatter of the students. The loud voices of her parents as they drove her to their house. Their loud yelling on the other side of Ahsoka's bedroom door. Their loud yelling in the living room downstairs. Her loud heartbeat, echoing endlessly inside her head. Her chest, shrinking. The smell of dust. The smell of captivity. The absence of an exit. The enormous weight of her own body and her inability to move it. The uncertainty that the phone battery would last long enough to get her through this. Herself, immobile. Powerless. Helpless. Useless.
She wouldn't be able to do it again.
"Morning, Snips," she heard, turning her head for the first time in hours. Already dressed and blonde hair still a bit damp, Anakin was frowning. "Didn't expect to find you here."
When he sat next to her, the comforting scents of shaving cream, shampoo, and fabric softener summoned her senses back to reality. She realized the previous night had not been kind to any of them; Ahsoka saw the scar and the bruises that her father's rings had left across the right side of Anakin's face, too dangerously close to his eye. Yet, there he was, next to her, just as he had been last night. The phone buzzing, displaying his name. His voice on the other end. His footsteps coming upstairs. The knock on the door. His real voice. His arm around her shoulders. Him bringing her home.
He was pressing his lips and scratching softly the burnt spot on his hand while looking pointedly at her.
"I woke up and then I couldn't go back to sleep," Ahsoka finally replied in a husky voice. "Felt pointless to stay in my bedroom."
He hesitated before asking a question to which he already knew the answer. "Are you okay?"
She paused, looking down at her slipper on the floor, flooded in sunlight. "I don't know."
"You can skip school today if you want. Not that I want to encourage that, but probably I'll feel better today knowing that they can't show up and take you to that shithole again."
Probably climbing Everest would have been easier than making this decision. Showing up at school would mean that her friends would ask questions, tons of them; it would mean having to sit through lessons while her mind would drift away and consequently get told off; it would mean having to withstand conversations and social interactions while every fiber of her being begged for her to be left alone; it would mean risking being intercepted by her parents once again; it would mean going to her scheduled appointment at the Center and, once there, reliving the whole story once more. But not showing up at school would mean being left alone, without her friends and their conversations; it would mean no funny fun facts from her biology teacher; it would mean no lunch next to her friends; it would mean hurting her own progress with Dr Unduli; it would mean no opportunities to get better.
She simply didn't know if she would be able to.
She looked at the spot in the window where the sunlight was coming from, a strip of broken and missing slats that should have been there to shield her. "You have to fix that blind, y'know."
Anakin was caught a little bit off guard, but then looked at the window and the dangling slats. "And deprive you from that beautiful sight of the sky?" he replied, smirking.
"You're a mess of an adult," she retorted jokingly, but then she realized there actually was a whole world out there, shining in daylight, past the broken pieces she had been focusing on.
He placed a hand on the nape of her neck and squeezed it gently. She responded in kind, moving closer to him and wrapping her arms around his torso. He placed his chin on top of her head, hugging her back.
"Do you want to skip school today?" he tried once again.
She still wasn't sure she would be able to make it through the day, but she knew Anakin would be there nonetheless. Her brother would always be there.
"No. I'll go," she said before finally putting the slipper on and feeling the warmth of the sun.
Much to her parents' dismay, Padmé insisted on going from her home in Saint-Michel city to the Arlington Social Services by bus, which was possible due to the fact that these two independent cities were separated from each other by a single street. The hour-long commute involved two bus rides, and for the last couple of days Padmé had been spending the first one completely focused on her tablet-reading the patient files which Dr Unduli had provided her with-and the second one going through her notes for her thesis. This strategy gave her an extra twenty minutes everyday for brainstorming, last minute changes, and much needed reviewing. She only stopped reading the profiles to greet the occasional passenger that sat beside her; otherwise, she focused on memorizing the names and the key information on each of the patients that were scheduled for that Tuesday.
On the other hand, she hadn't narrowed down the subject matter of her thesis yet, and it was driving her insane. She counted the days left until her next meeting with her thesis director, already in fear she wouldn't be able to make any progress before that. She opened a file called 'Brainstorm' and skimmed the chaos she had handwritten on the blank page. There were terms such as "mental health", "teen substance use", "brain development", "teen behavior" and "preventing drug use" in balloons, connected with arrows in every direction, including question marks in bold placed next to several ideas written in a hurry. There were names of authors, researchers, scholars, sprouting from almost every single one of those balloons, some even scratched but then revalidated by means of a tick—or several—next to them. Asterisks next to some words led to quite a long list of footnotes in which, to her own dismay, the handwriting was almost unintelligible. She had no idea how she would ever be able to untangle this mess.
As the second bus finally came to a stop outside Arlington High, Padmé put all her belongings in her designer tote bag and made a mental list of the patients she would be meeting that day. She was walking the few meters which separated the school entrance and the Social Services center when she saw Mr Palpatine a few cars away. He was locking his black sedan while talking on the phone, but he still waved at Padmé when he saw her, so she waited for him by the doors to say hi.
"Well, Mr Secretary, that will be no problem," she heard Mr Palpatine say when he finally came closer. Padmé made an effort to focus on her shoes. "It should get here by next week, so I'm pretty sure it'll be delivered to us before the fundraiser." Mr Palpatine finally came to halt in front of Padmé, smiling warmly. "Yes. I'll see to it. Thank you, sir. Good day, sir."
"Good morning, Mr Palpatine," Padmé said, once the senior had put his phone in his pocket.
"Well, hello, dear. How are you? I didn't see you yesterday and I wanted to ask you how your first day had gone," he told her, placing a soft hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, quite well, actually. Dr Unduli is amazing and very kind," she replied, immediately regretting not being able to come up with more interesting feedback.
"Indeed, you're in good hands," he replied, smiling. "You did arrive a bit early, didn't you?" he asked in a confused, but gentle tone.
"Oh, well I usually leave with some time to spare in case the bus is late or something unexpected happens," she explained.
Mr Palpatine gave her a bewildered look. "You come all the way from Saint-Michel by bus? Is there a line with such a route?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, actually. I take a bus in Saint-Michel which brings me to the city limits and then a second bus in Arlington." He huffed at the idea, but Padmé was quick to justify herself. "It's alright, though. I usually take advantage of that time to read or review my notes."
"And you do this every day?" he questioned, frowning.
"It really is no inconvenience," she excused herself, adjusting the strap of her handbag on her shoulder. The idea of looking silly in the eyes of her supervisor made her try to find more reasons to validate her own personal decision. "There are even night buses… In fact, I was thinking that maybe one of these days I would stay a little longer in the staff room because I focus better here than at home."
Mr Palpatine nodded slightly, but he seemed to be deep in thought. "Just make sure you don't overstay," he finally replied, "because the only people with a master key are me and Anakin. Remember him? The boy I introduced you to on your first day."
"Oh, yes." She remembered him quite well. Despite making an effort the previous day to avoid him, in the end they hadn't crossed paths, thankfully. "I didn't see him yesterday," she commented as casually as possible.
"That's where I was going. He only comes to the Center on Sundays, so if there's a problem it might be a long while before either of us can come and help."
"I see," she replied, more relieved that there would be no risks of accidentally crossing paths with the rude blonde than getting accidentally locked up at night.
"Anyway, just try not to wait until night time to go back home, please. It saddens me to say so, but sometimes the streets can be a bit dangerous both in Arlington and Saint-Michel," he begged her, sounding way warmer than her own parents. "If you ever need it, I'll be happy to drive you home, alright, dear?" Mr Palpatine pleaded.
A few minutes later, having said goodbye to Mr Palpatine at his office door, Padmé went straight to Dr Unduli's office. Luminara was already there, typing on her laptop, hot cup of coffee next to her on the desk. Her glossy black hair was tied in a high bun and her big, round eyes were fixed on the screen as she typed away. When she saw Padmé, she smiled broadly and motioned for her to come in.
"Close the door behind you, dear," she instructed in her delicate desi accent. "This is part of a last minute idea I had this morning. I'm working on a table chart for you, so that you can fill it in with the information you get from today's sessions. It is similar to the notes we take for a diagnosis, but it is fully focused on your research topic, so I think this will help you narrow it down," she said, smiling. When Padmé looked at the screen, she kicked herself for not being able to come up with something so simple yet so useful but she chose not to voice her frustrations.
"With this, you will be in full charge of taking the notes from now on," Luminara continued, and Padmé's chest shrunk. She had been in therapy sessions for her undergraduate and master's, but she had never been fully in charge of key aspects, such as the note-taking. She bit her own lip at the thought of compromising Dr Unduli's work because of her silly mistakes.
"Are you sure? I don't think I… What if I…?" she stuttered, but Luminara raised a hand.
"I am more than sure," Luminara reassured her, smiling.
Padmé didn't stop gnawing at her lip for the next three hours. During each of those sessions, she sat in a corner, trying to record as much information as possible. 'We record trees, not a forest,' her thesis director would always say, but she was not sure that the trees which particularly interested her were the truly important ones. When she ran out of space in the empty slots of the table that Luminara had printed for her, she resorted to a referencing system that linked those slots to the notes in her notebook.
During lunch break, Padmé politely declined joining Luminara at the staff room and stayed at the office classifying the notes and rewriting everything in a clearer way. Thus, when the time for the first afternoon session arrived, her stomach was nearly growling.
"Padmé, have you eaten?" she heard Dr Unduli ask. When she raised her eyes from her notes, she saw the woman leaning on the door with a cup of coffee in her hands. She tried to think of a white lie, but hesitation gave it away. "You know, I really appreciate you taking this so seriously… I really admire your passion and your hard work," Luminara said, approaching the desk. She sat down opposite Padmé, placing her mug delicately on the table, and then extended a soft hand that she rested on top of hers. "However, there's more to this job than this, and there's more to you than your work," she said, motioning to the notes. "Collecting data is crucial for your thesis, I know. But while we are in session, your priority should be the patient."
"But what if I don't record something important?" she said, with a hint of trembling in her voice. "People give many details sometimes, and if you have to go through my notes afterwards, I just-"
Luminara interrupted by shaking her head. "I trusted you with this task because I trust your judgement. As a colleague. As long as you're here, we're a team. And teammates work together, so… I want you to be more present and active in this next session. Don't sit in the corner. Sit with me and the patient, and engage in the conversation. I want you to look at the patient 95% of the time and your notebook as little as possible."
These new instructions gave Padmé pause. She didn't have the authority to start asking questions to someone else's patients. She didn't have the experience to fully discern what made a good diagnosis and what didn't. Luminara had said that therapy sessions were not college homework… but how was she supposed to use them for her college papers, then?
"Now, you have exactly fifteen minutes until our patient arrives, so go to the staff room and eat something, have a cup of coffee… Take a break."
As she sat by herself in the staff room eating a sandwich from the vending machine, she opened her phone for the first time in hours. She had several texts from Dormé and Palo-her two best friends-and a couple of videos of Sola from her wedding dress fitting. She stretched her back and moved her neck around a few times while trying to keep her persistent thoughts of the sessions at bay. She wasn't completely successful, but at least her stomach wasn't empty anymore.
The first appointment for the afternoon sessions was a teenage girl. Just as most patients, she was wary of Padmé when she saw her sitting in one of the armchairs but chose to say nothing. She was carrying a backpack full of buttons with rock bands and anime logos; Padmé really admired her dyed dreadlocks and thought that the white and blue in her hair really brought out her round blue eyes. Judging from looks alone, this girl must have been one of the cool kids at school; not only was she a beautiful young girl, she seemed to have a self-assured demeanor.
"Hello, Ahsoka, how have you been?" Luminara greeted the girl, closing the door behind her.
"Good," she replied, as most patients did.
Luminara signaled for Ahsoka to sit and she chose one end of the sofa. Luminara sat on the other. "This is Padmé, she's a psychologist too, and she's working on a PhD thesis, right now," she started, giving Padmé the floor.
"Just like Luminara, I want to work with children and teens," she explained trying to hide her shaky voice, "so as part of my academic development, the university has assigned me to this Center as an intern of sorts. I'm here to learn as much as I can from Luminara... but also from you," she finished and looked Ahsoka in the eye.
The girl seemed surprised. "What could you learn from me? I almost don't even know what PhDs are."
Padmé chuckled. "Honestly, me neither," she said, rolling her eyes and letting out a breath. It made Ahsoka giggle.
Padmé discovered that this teen found no trouble in having two therapists once the ice had been broken. She seemed a bit evasive, tugging at her sleeves constantly, but not because of Padmé's presence; she began talking of how she was upset because of a misunderstanding with her friends and a guy she was dating, and Padmé felt embarrassed she had been so self-centered. She had been focusing on her effect on the patients rather than on the patients themselves. It didn't take her ten minutes to realise she was truly engaging for the first time in the session. Still, she had to make an effort not to write down too much... until there was nothing to write. Because Ahsoka stopped talking.
All of a sudden, the teenager covered her eyes with one hand and shook her shoulders gently. She cried without saying a word for several minutes. Padmé had seen situations like this before, but none of her previous tutors had managed it the way Luminara did. She simply waited, keeping a relaxed posture and a kind gaze. Padmé chose to follow her lead. When Ahsoka finally spoke, she told them of fear; she rambled on resentment, and loneliness, and betrayal. She said she was tired. Repeatedly.
And then she spoke of courage and hope. She spoke of love and family.
Padmé realised she had been completely immersed in Ahsoka's retelling of last night's incident when Luminara spoke for the first time in a good while. "Why didn't you call the center, Ahsoka?"
"Because," she said, tearing up again. "if the government gets in on this, they'll split me from my brother. They'll just assign me to some random family who knows where and I don't want another house. I have a house."
"Ahsoka, your brother takes good care of you and you love him very much, but he is not your guardian and he could get in real trouble if your parents decide to sue."
"Fuck them, they're too high to even tie their own shoes," she spat, wiping her tears. "He saved me. He was at work, but when he finished his shift he saw my texts and he called me immediately. He was on the line the whole way. We had a fight on Sunday, because I got home really, really late and he trash talked my friends, but even though I said horrible things to him he still came and he got me out of there. And then this morning we made breakfast together and we made up and he asked me if I wanted to skip school but I chose not to."
"It was very brave of you to face a new day, Ahsoka," Padmé said, making the girl tear up again. "Your brother seems to be a loving person, and it is wonderful you have someone you can count on unconditionally. It is great you have such a nice person to hold on to, but until you're eighteen…"
"He wanted to skip work to get me to school and then back home after the session, but I told him not to." Ahsoka added. "He's been sneaking texts from work the whole day. He's scared my parents showed up again today. I was scared, too, but they didn't. So I promised him, and I meant it from the bottom of my heart."
Clearly, the teen was in no state at present to hear about legal procedures, so both women chose to drop the subject. The remaining minutes Luminara reminded Ahsoka of the several techniques they had been working on to prevent anxiety episodes and they did breathing exercises as well as writing reminders in Ahsoka's diary.
Once the girl had left and Luminara had closed the door, Padmé let out a breath she had been holding without realizing. "I cannot believe that there are parents like that," she muttered, rubbing her eyes.
"Ahsoka is a very special patient," Luminara said, sitting back down on the sofa. "The first time we met, four years ago, she had just been discharged from rehabilitation. She was thirteen."
Padmé covered her face. "I wish I could do something to stop her from being this scared ever again."
Luminara smiled. "Courage begins by trusting oneself."
I just finished with Luminara… I'm going straight home as promised, so don't worry. The guys got upset that I wouldn't join them at the mall but I guess they'll have to deal with it. I'll text you when I'm home. (3:03)
When Anakin read Ahsoka's text, he let out a sigh of relief. He entered the showers at the gym for Tesla employees and tried to relax as the water drained his exhaustion and worries away. He tried to focus on the logical outlook: that everything would be fine, that Ahsoka would arrive home safely, that her parents wouldn't intercept her, that they wouldn't sue him for kidnapping or physical abuse. However, when Anakin exited the showers and started to get ready for the afternoon shift, he saw his own reflection in the mirror and he couldn't help but focus on the scar across the right side of his face. Right there, on his face, was the imprint of the violent surge that had possessed every corner of his mind and had led him to a dark pit of complete disregard of reality. The same feeling that had taken over him the previous night spread as a dark flame from his chest to his head and up to every single fingertip. He hadn't been aware he had been harming another person until Ahsoka brought him back to the surface. He should have been angry at Ahsoka's father for injuring him, but there was a questioning voice in Anakin's mind that demanded to know why he had lowered himself to the level of that man, hating himself for having done so.
Even some minutes later, when he was at the cafeteria having a latte before starting the shift at 4, he was still struggling to get his mind off the previous night. When he got confirmation from his little sister that she was safely home, he replied with a single emoji in hopes that it would deceive her into thinking he was calm. He checked his email, desperate to find something that required his complete focus, but apart from a notice from the center that there would be a meeting on Saturday evening, he found nothing too worthy. He was seriously considering getting started with work early when he saw Obi-Wan enter the cafeteria and set his eyes on him. Cursing to himself, he acknowledged Obi-Wan's greeting from afar, a clear indication he would join Anakin once he had got his cup of coffee. By that time, Obi-Wan would probably have figured out that Anakin had been avoiding him all day.
"You look a little different today. Did you get a haircut?" Obi-Wan mocked him when he sat at the table.
"Don't worry about it," Anakin replied, knowing fully well that was not the end of it.
"Was it something embarrassing? Did you fall down the stairs?" the director kept on teasing.
Anakin rolled his eyes. "If you must know, I was mugged last night," he replied, trying to deliver the best performance of the day. So far, it had worked pretty well with the members of his team, but he knew that fooling Obi-Wan would require extra effort. "I went out with a girl in Saint-Michel and after I dropped her off I was cornered by two guys. We struggled and they pinned me down on the floor… That's where I hurt my face."
Obi-Wan finished stirring his coffee and frowned. "Yes, that's what I've heard, but you see, bollocks have this distinctive smell…"
Anakin rolled his eyes, but before he could retort, Obi-Wan spoke in his usual paced and soft tone.
"Anakin, I've known you for years, ever since you were in college. I've seen you through your toughest challenges both academic and professional… and I can tell when you are stressed." Despite being only about ten years older than Anakin, Obi-Wan's blue eyes seemed to shine with the wisdom of a whole galaxy.
Indeed, there had been many instances in which Obi-Wan had helped him through moments of utter helplessness, both professional and personal, but there seemed to be a huge leap between daily life issues and perpetrating someone else's misery. He was not fully sure about the source of his anger-Ahsoka's father, himself, life-thus, he didn't know where to start. That was why he had decided to do what Anakin had been doing best for the last few years: avoid the subject.
"I'm still a little shaken from last night, that's all."
"Look, if you don't want to tell me about it, that's fine… but at least don't lie to me." Obi-Wan always twitched his lip when he was upset, and not even his moustache could hide it.
Letting out a deep sigh, Anakin decided to make an objective, yet concise, narration. "Something happened with Ahsoka last night," he began. He told him in detail about the texts and how she had been hiding in his bedroom until he arrived, but then carefully chose his words for the last part of the story. As far as Obi-Wan was concerned, Anakin had only pushed the man back.
"Well, I'm glad Ahsoka is fine," Obi-Wan finally said, "but Anakin… you must be careful. If you meddle too much, you could have serious legal problems. She's still a minor."
He needn't remind Anakin of that. "She won't be in a few months, and then she won't have to worry anymore," he retorted cheekily.
"Still. I don't want you to go to prison."
There it was once more, the dark flame from his chest to his head and up to every single fingertip. "I will not!" he barked, louder than he had intended. He took a breath and clenched his jaw trying to calm himself. "I'm just… You know I'm just doing what my mom would've wanted. I won't leave Ahsoka alone. I won't leave her unprotected, against a whole world which wants nothing but to see her fail. I won't leave her side unless she explicitly asks me to. She needs me."
Obi-Wan regarded him carefully and then he finally placed an arm across Anakin's shoulders. "Shmi would be very proud of you, boy. But you also have to take care of yourself."
While Anakin nodded, he denied Obi-Wan's last claim. Not that he didn't want to do it… but he was convinced he didn't deserve it. After all, compassion was for those worthy of love.
"I got an email from the fiberglass provider this morning," he changed the subject. "They sent the supplies yesterday, so they're probably in reception right now. I'll have the team work on the calibrations so that the line assembly can have it as soon as possible."
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes, albeit smiling. "Always on the move."
It wasn't often that Anakin Skywalker found himself in a good mood, but as he parked outside the Arlington Social Services on Saturday evening coming for work, he thought to himself that the last few days had been an oasis of normalcy. He entered the staff room when apparently everyone else had already arrived. He gave a general greeting to the group and decided to stand by the wall, as everyone else was already occupying the chairs and couches. Anakin met Mr Palpatine's eyes and the old man smiled kindly at him; it was then that he remembered the last time he had seen Palpatine he had introduced Anakin to that psychologist. 'Shit,' Anakin thought, immediately worried she had complained about the short argument they had had, but the old man seemed to be as serene as always. Maybe the girl hadn't complained to the director at all, which would have been a pleasant surprise.
When Mr Palpatine opened a file he had in front of him, everyone started to make themselves quiet. Luminara, who had been pouring herself a cup of coffee, walked past Anakin in order to return to her chair.
"Been a while since I last saw you, Skywalker," she said.
"Three months since the last meeting, if I'm not wrong," he replied, smiling.
Luminara nodded smiling and continued her way to the opposite side of the room, where she sat next to the pampered, uptown girl he had had the pleasure to meet the previous weekend. She was staring at him intently. Her glossy and curly hair was tied in the most childish of tails, and her off-shoulder shirt unsuccessfully deviated his attention from the cliché gold chain around her tiny neck. He held her gaze, trying to show her that her deep brown eyes would not unsettle him.
"Well, everyone, good evening and thank you for coming," Mr Palpatine began, snapping them both out of their staring contest. "As you already know, the purpose of this meeting is to organise the upcoming fundraiser for the center. Here with us today is Mr Dooku, from the Mayor's office," he signaled to a white-bearded man who was sitting next to him. Mr Dooku bowed his head politely to the room. "He came earlier to sign a few documents and he agreed to stay for this meeting to let you know about Arlington's City Hall involvement in the fundraiser."
"Indeed," Dooku spoke in a ceremonious manner. "Both the Mayor and l believe that this Center is a very important asset for the town of Arlington, and we are pleased to collaborate in any way we can."
Anakin rolled his eyes. He hated politicians.
"I have been in talks with Sheev," Dooku gestured to Palpatine, "and he has informed me of his plan to host a larger event, which would require more staff and special supplies. In order to guarantee everyone's safety and the correct management of the sums of money the Center expects to collect, we will provide the event with safeboxes and registers."
The news caused a ripple of approval in the room.
"I believe I speak for everyone present when I say how truly grateful we are, Mr Dooku," Mr Palpatine said, unknowingly demonstrating he was unable to read Anakin's mind. "Given that we have already decided on the theme, which will be 'The 80s', Secretary Mas Amedda and I have come up with a list of tasks from which I would like you to choose," he moved on, as his second in command at the center pulled out a piece of paper with a table chart on it. "We have two weeks, so the sooner we get started, the better."
All the attendees soon started to choose which activities they would be in charge of organizing, while Anakin waited patiently. He knew he would be in charge of the go-karts circuit as in every single event, but the rest of the people negotiated on the 5k run, the board games, the concert, the dancing classes, the football tournament, and the food stands. That process took no less than half an hour, time in which he productively checked his social networks feeds. When the discussiones seemed to be reaching an end, he put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Luminara, who was talking at that moment, and noticed that Padmé was staring at him once again, but she averted her gaze immediately. He bit his tongue so as not to curse.
"...and apart from promoting the fundraiser in papers, radio, and so on, I think we should also put signs on," Luminara said. "I have already printed about sixty of them, and I was thinking that we should put them up as soon as possible."
"Well, is there anyone who hasn't been assigned any tasks prior to the fundraiser yet?" Palpatine asked, looking around. Anakin uncrossed one of his arms to raise his palm. Unfortunately, the only other person who did too was Padmé, who shot her hand up above her head. "Wonderful! Then the two of you could maybe work together tomorrow and put these around Saint-Michel and Arlington," Palpatine concluded and closed his file.
'No,' Anakin thought. 'Wait. No. No. Shit.' Without further discussion, and immediately assuming that Anakin was approved of the dictamination, everyone started to gather their belongings and leave.
Frozen in place, Anakin and Padmé shared a look one more time-except that, for the first time, they perfectly understood what the other was feeling.
A/N: Hello! Thank you all so much for the comments, favourites and follows for Ch1! I was not expecting so much love! I would seriously appreciate it if you could review this chapter as well! Now, here's an important message: Everyone, please, take all the necessary measures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. I'm in quarantine in Spain and it is no joke. The most important thing is not to collapse hospitals! Many people who need all sorts of treatments might be left with no medical care if we're not responsible. Since I have to stay at home for the next 15 days, I will do my best to write the next chapter before the end of March =)