Part One:
A Chance to Fly and a Place to Fall

Chapter One

"Tell me of your world Master Jedi," Queen Amidala peered down at the blue eyed man with question and curiosity as she sat on the ramp of her royal cruiser that he was hard at work on.

"For one thing your highness, I am not a Jedi Master, just a learner," he replied slapping at the whirling insects that insisted on making play just in the line of his vision.

The Queen shrugged finding boldness behind the make-up and ado of her royal attire, she wouldn't have braved so much if she were still in her handmaiden robes, "Still I want to know what you have seen, what you have done, please tell me."

Obi-Wan Kenobi, padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn, sat up with a sigh, dust covering him, "Milady I have been across this galaxy and have found nothing but the same; death: life, anger: indifference, greed: generosity. It never changes, except for maybe the color…" he grunted looking over the brown sand that had managed to works its way into everything from him to the whole of the ship.

"I have seen little besides Naboo, in fact this is the only planet besides my home world," she folded her arms.

"You are a Queen! Surely you've been to…I don't know political things on other planets, neighboring ones or something!" he exclaimed in shock.

She shook her head sadly, "No I have not. I was only elected a few months ago and have not been required to journey from my planet. Though I wish it were under different circumstances I am a little excited about this trip to Coruscant," she brightened though she dipped her head with embarrassment, "You must think me awful, taking my planets horrible misfortune for pleasure, I don't mean it to sound like that… I just meant…"

"I know what you meant milady," he smiled meeting her eyes as he absently rubbed clean his hydro-spanner, "I do not think you awful, in fact I understand exactly what you mean," he feels a strange tugging around his heart, a tugging he didn't find all too unpleasant.

"Your Master is returning…with a small boy," the Queen exclaimed standing on the ramp hand in front of her eyes blocking the sun.

With an unpleased grunt, Obi-Wan rose and strode to meet the Jedi, the Gungan, the Queen's handmaiden Sabé and a small blond haired little boy.

"Go to the ship Anakin, I will be with you in a moment," Qui-Gon instructed waiting till the handmaiden took the boy with Jar Jar following before turning his attention to his padawan.

"Why do I get the feeling we've picked up another pathetic life form?"

"That boy is responsible for getting us these parts, and it was his blood you tested Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon replied with no rebuke.

Obi-Wan pondered that for a moment with curiosity. Nodding slightly he fell into step with his Master back to the ship.

"Who is the boy?" Amidala asked having watched the exchange.

"His name is Anakin Skywalker; he won a podrace in order for us to acquire the needed parts for this ship milady. We'll be taking him to Coruscant with us…as soon as I am able to fix his heap of metal that is," Obi-Wan answered with a huff eyeing the parts and the damage.

The Queen giggled not sure what to make of the Jedi who has just called her royal cruiser 'a heap of metal'.

"I am sorry milady I should not have made such a remark, I was out of line," Obi-Wan recognized his faux pax.

"Nonsense, I too would be cursing this heap of metal if it were I who was responsible for fixing it. I will leave you to your work then Jedi Kenobi, perhaps we will again have a chance to talk when circumstances are more in our favor," she nodded in his direction with a tender smile as she went back inside the ship.

The padawan went back to his work more thoughtful then before. His hands loosen and tighten the bolts, going through all the motions of repair yet his mind continued to dwell upon the Queen safely inside her vessel. He felt sure that there was something inside of her, something just waiting to burst open. He felt her eager, youthful energy and knew that it will soon take bloom, take flight. He also felt a strange yearning inside his own youthful soul; he wants to see her, to help her take flight.

So much is building in this young man so much of everything. All the steadfast restrictions passed on him by the Jedi, all the budding emotions fueled now unknowingly by a Queen's shy smile. Everything that was once so sure is now being viewed through a new prism. A spectrum of color, choices, and feelings spread in him like a blinding rainbow. The light giving these colors shine? Why it's the light of dare we say it, love?

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Amidala sighed with thought, her mind not on the fantastic story her handmaiden just conveyed. The story of the small blond haired boy tired and scared in the next room, responsible for the repair parts. She wanted to listen, she wanted to hear—really hear all the extraordinary events that were wrapped up in that boy by the name of Anakin Skywalker, but at this moment the only thing—only one she wants to think of is another blond haired male, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Why even just thinking his name makes her blush. That pinkish purple color that highlights her cheeks has never before graced her face. This color is new; a love blush. Sure, she's blushed from embarrassment; physical exhaustion has also reddened her cheeks but never this lovely color. This one is brought on by that wondrous feeling of expectant excitement. That rush of nerves that flow from head to toe at the mere mention of the objection of her affection.

It seems this trip is offering a virtual cornucopia of new feelings and new experiences. New scenery brings new sensations. A young Jedi brings a new emotion. She sighs again deeply just thinking about. He dropped from the sky with his lightsaber glowing; he dropped from heaven and took root firmly in her heart… that is after it started to beat again. She fell hard. And for a Jedi! She didn't care. All she knew that she was precariously close to saying she was in love with him. And what a crazy thing, in love days after meeting! It was preposterous!

Knowing that, hiding it under layers of make-up, clothes and carefully constructed facades she keeps it to herself. He is a Jedi, she a Queen there are too many rules, too many reason not to…it was impossible! Truly and utterly unattainable…right?

Why couldn't she feel like this for someone else? Hadn't there been man after man paraded in front of her on a nearly daily basis? Why couldn't she love them? Maybe it was because she had tasted the bitterness of untrue, forced loved that she recognized this true one so promptly. Or maybe it was all just a reaction to a new awareness she found in herself brought on by the fresh atmosphere so it was really nothing more but a vapor in front of her eyes masquerading as love. Whatever the reason she knew that this Jedi would be the one that would give her love flight; he would be the one to unlock her.

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"Milady, you shouldn't be up…" Obi-Wan jumped awkwardly from his place at the table in the cruisers common room.

"Please, don't rise for me. I didn't mean to interrupt," she smiled shyly.

He caught her faint hesitation and her uncharacteristic timidity. He gave her a lopsided though leery smile and waved to the other side of the crescent bench, the round table separating them.

"Thank you," she nodded to him sliding into the booth. She tucked a piece of wayward rebellious hair back into its place in the ornate style. She tried to bring her eyes up to seek out those blue orbs that shone in his handsome face but she discovered her bones have gone to liquid along with her will.

"It's late; I would think that you would be resting; we won't be to Coruscant for another ten or so hours…" Obi-Wan tried his voice soft and imploring. Meaningless conversation…

"Hmm…I couldn't sleep, too much to think about I suppose," she lifted a dainty shoulder trying to sound casual.

Around and around in that circle of infinity never reaching their true destination, she wants to ask all the questions that flutter about in her soul, he wants to spend eternity just basking in that warm flooding light trying to understand her. But they continue to evade, continue to loop around the issue.

"It's unusually quite out there," Obi-Wan indicated the dark hyperspace in which they traveled.

"Is it?" she mused aloud eyes wondering, "What is it normally like?"

He chuckled at the question, "Well I guess it's hard to explain…Normally there are ships…Ships of all different kinds, large ones, and small ones. Ones that go faster then thought and others that come slower then summer on Hoth. All different; every shape you can imagine, every color under the suns. They come and go they fill the dark space with this hum of sight and sound. At least around here…this is Coruscant space even this far out.
"Everybody comes here, the capital planet. Some come to visit, some come for the shopping, others to relocate…some are criminals, others honest hard working families looking for a better life. Some are members of office, some are lowly street sweepers. They all seek out this planet trying to find something…or trying to hide something." He shrugged his voice dispassionate and aloof.

She searched his far off face and wonders what it is he is seeking…or hiding. She didn't ask that very personal question but rather a safe one, "What about places other then this? Where else do you go?"

"Where don't I go? I've been to the Smugglers Moon; I've been beyond the Outer Rim. I have seen space so black you begin to wonder what light is, or if it ever existed. Time becomes something you calculate by the number of heartbeats it takes to circle your ship instead of by the position of the farthest sun. I've been to one end of the galaxy to the other…well maybe not that far but at times it feels like it."

"How marvelous" she gasped with wonder, "How old are you? How many years have you had these adventures?"

He laughed, a cynical jaded laugh that had the Queen repelling a bit.

"I am five and twenty though it seems more like five and a hundred," he shook his head in repulsion at sometime Amidala wouldn't dare to guess.

She took in the information with a slight inclination of her head. Peering into his face she found the traces of years or rather the traces of hardship painted gracefully along his eyes, the scowl lines ever so faint creasing around his tenderly firm mouth. Yes, she saw the compact time in him.

"I've barely seen nineteen years, yet I am the Queen of entire planet. How odd…I've never seen a skyline but my own, I've never touched foreign soil till you came into my life. Now suddenly I have this desire to taste everything around me! I want to explore this wonderful galaxy! I want to see what you've seen!" she smiled the feeling of excitement building in her till she felt she might burst with it.

"I am sorry that I have given you the impression that this galaxy is wonderful. Because it isn't," his voice was sour and dark.

She blanched unintentionally, feeling sick to her stomach, "You think that I am silly? Some empty headed girl with nonsense ideas, don't you?" she demanded though her voice was genial even as she rebuked him.

"I never said that," he rebutted none too emphatically.

"You didn't have to," tears seemed to well though certainly they were unbidden.

"Milady, I did not, I assure you, mean to imply that you were somehow…" he searched for the right word.

"Stupid?" she supplied crossing her arms looking at him indignantly.

"Well I certainly don't think that and that wasn't the word I was looking for—but anyway. I just meant that why would you go looking for something that I can assure you isn't anything you would miss having not seen it when you have everything you could ever want right where you are?" he was truly baffled.

"And what is that I have?"

He looked gravely at her checking a sigh, "You have people that respect you, you have a planet that is beautiful, you have safety—or you will once everything is settled, you have financial security and a palace for a home. You have everything that people seek! You have every possible tangible possession. Why seek out space?"

She felt her mouth open to reply but found she was struck silent by his seemingly innocent observations, "I…I…you're right I do have all that, but I suppose it's what I can't touch, can't hold in my hands that I am seeking. I am looking for the moment of exhilaration as I look upon the scenery I've only read about. I am looking for a time I am surrounded by something so new that my every sense is heightened and drinking it in. I am looking for something to wake me from my self imposed emotional slumber. I want to feel every sensation…I want to feel alive!" She finally gave a voice to all those longings she had in her soul for so long but always was afraid to say aloud. Why she felt she could trust him with these precious dreams, fantasies…hopes she couldn't say.

He was silent for a long drawn heavy moment. He let his eyes fall to the floor, "You are eloquent milady…elegant and graceful not only in speech but movement and it seems in thought. I am sorry for my quick assumptions and for speaking so freely. I had no right to take such liberties, I profusely apologize, Queen Amidala," he quickly stood bowed stiffly and with an arc of sweeping brown robe disappeared into assumingly, his quarters.

Stunned by his departure she starred wide eyed into the space that settles quickly around her letting the true emptiness and darkness consume. A stray tear slid down her cheek and she laid her head on her folded arms that were supported by the table. Feeling utterly alone and cold she is sure she feels the wings she thought had finally sprouted snap and fall in a pile at her feet.

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