Part 27: Oasis.
The storm began as evening fell on Varykino, the natural conclusion to an unusually warm day in such a temperament climate as this. Clear droplets cascading down from a still blue sky, pouring down the windows, producing a vibrating hum as they bounced upon the ground. Increasing as to intensity and density, it turned flowers into fountains, stone floor balconies into stream basins, and the Senator of Naboo into a young girl who laughed as she eagerly held her hands out to welcome the drops on her skin, as it soaked her back-less pastel gown and her long dark hair. The material clung to her figure, outlining every curve, crowned by the dark gentle curled tresses, both of which glistened in the light from the villa.
"Padmé," Obi-Wan called out from the threshold of the room which led to the balcony, "you'll catch your death!"
She turned to him and laughed. "No, I won't. Come out, the view is glorious!"
To her surprise, instead of continuing to urge caution, he joined her outside, his arms coming to rest loosely around her waist as she twirled before him.
"Yes, it is," he murmured, but his blue grey eyes were only looking at her.
Padmé gazed up at him as the rain fell on his newly trimmed reddish blond hair, down his face into his beard, and then she forgot the rain pouring down her clothes and his, her hair and his, for the sound was lost in the midst of her pounding heart and his, as they kissed. It began as gently as the ones before, until their lips parted to taste, whereupon they began drinking each other in as if discovering an oasis in the midst of a desert world.
Their clothes were soaked but they made an adequate blanket. He laid her down gently upon them, his lips never leaving hers. Despite the weather they slowed the pace, knowing the mutual need to savour each facet of a moment which would never come again. To capture within their memories the way the rain drops briefly rested on her skin and his, the touches which caused each bite of pleasure, how soft her skin felt under the caresses of his callused hands, how smooth his felt under hers, the combination of tenderness and passion in which he took her, the look in her eyes and his as they became one.
Afterwards they hurried inside, Padmé watching him as he used the Force to fetch his cloak and towels, plucking the former out of the air to wrap around her, his hands lingering at the edges which rested below her face. He returned her gaze, a silent vow never verbalised before abruptly breaking away to hand her a towel and take one himself.
She watched him as she dried her hair, awed by the amount of passion hidden under his Jedi facade. She had seen him fight with such deadly precision, now she had received such devout love and here he stood calmly drying his hair. Padmé cast her eyes over him, noting his toned strength gained from years of combat training, the tight reign he was keeping on his desires, which she blushed to see the evidence of. They had been married mere hours ago, known each other for ten years, yet everything about him seemed new and wondrous to her, just as she realised from his burning gaze that it was the same of her to him.
He turned to her, catching her look, and his movements slowed. The towel fell to the floor as he came towards her, and with a swift elegant movement swept her into his embrace. Her towel and then his cloak dropped to the floor in rapid succession.
They left the jumbled mess in the wake of their journey to the bed where he lay her down with infinite care and grace, and she pulled him on top of her with an understated rush. Skin met skin in an effort to sate desires both knew would never tire, despite the inability to restrain the urgency they felt in uniting them. Shyness and hesitancy due to this new depth of intimacy between them had long since given way to boldness, though the initiator always carried out an eloquent search within their gaze for consent before going following through. Always the inquiry would prove needless for refusal was never given, but manners were too much a part of their natures to rescind even when they were alone.
Afterwards he would gather her into his arms, a brief pause to savour what had passed between them, to relish in the knowledge that many more such intimate unions would now be a frequent part of their lives together.
"Did you have any suitors after I was gone?" he asked her, suddenly curious.
She shook her head, the motion tickling his chest with her dark brown tresses. "Not after you were gone. Before, when I was in the last years of the Apprentice Legislature. His name was Palo. He had dark curly hair, dreamy eyes..."
"I get the picture," he remarked, his hand brushing the curves of her breasts, almost as if to remind her of his presence. "What happened?"
"He went on to become an artist, and I was elected Princess of Theed." She turned her head slightly to look at him. "What about you? Was there anyone while you waited for me?"
"No one after you," he replied, "but two before you. When I was thirteen, Qui-Gon and I were sent to mediate with the elders and youth of Melida/Daan."
"I remember hearing about the rebellion," Padmé said. "What happened?"
"The youth cause became important to me," he answered. "Before I realised it, I started questioning everything I had worked so hard to achieve. Then I met Cerasi. She was beautiful, passionately concerned for her people, eloquent, intelligent. I told Qui-Gon that I loved her and wanted to leave the Order for her, for there was no way a Jedi could marry then, let alone a Padawan, especially one so young as I. For I was young, too young to understand what I wanted. Or what I felt. She died in my arms during the battle."
Padmé brushed the back of his hands with her own, silently offering condolences. "And the other?" she asked.
"Qui-Gon and Yoda allowed me to rejoin the Order. A few years later I was reunited with a friend, Siri Tachi. We'd always felt a brief attraction, and when Qui-Gon was haranguing the Council over extending the Corellian experiment, we entertained the possibility of having a closer relationship. But the attraction I felt faded the moment I laid eyes on you." He smiled, remembering the moment. "When I wanted to kiss your neck after I fastened that necklace on you, I knew you were in my heart, even though it was hardly proper for me to feel such emotions for a girl eleven years my junior back then."
She smiled at having her suspicions about that moment in their past confirmed. "Age was never a pause for thought for either of us. Our hearts were in too deep before we learned to practise caution. Is she still in the Order?"
"Yes, she and her Padawan are on a field mission, which is why she did not come with Bant, Reeft and Garen to the ceremony."
"That reminds me, something odd occurred then," and she went on to describe the vision she saw in her mind whilst they stood before the holy man.
Obi-Wan stilled as he came to understand the symbolism contained within. "Let's pray it was a warning," he murmured. "And the end means that the light will triumph over the storm which is coming."
Then he kissed her, driving the vision and every other thought out of her mind.
"I'd like to bring our children here," Padmé remarked, "if we can."
Obi-Wan turned his gaze upon her, unable to do naught but admire the contented picture she presented to him as she lay in his lap within the fields near the waterfalls of Varykino. Sunlight caressed everything from the droplets within the fountains and pools to the dew drying blades of grass they and the remains of their picnic rested upon. As it caressed her tanned arms and pale yellow flower embroidered dress, the same one she had worn when she presented him with a proposal ten years ago in the palace at Theed, along with the parts of her brown hair not sheltered by his face or arms, or the clasped weaved nets.
"How many do you want?" He asked her.
"Three," she answered promptly. "That was how many I imagined when you first mentioned them. Two girls and a boy running about these fields while you and I watched them as we are now."
Strands of her recollection drifted into his mind, making him smile. "We shall, whenever our leaves permit."
"Can you raise and teach your own children?" Padmé inquired.
"The Corellian Jedi do, so I see no reason why not," Obi-Wan replied. "Though it might be wise for them to know the ways of the Temple, the war could insure our absence frequently."
She didn't need to query his assumption concerning the length of the war, they had been delaying the conflict so long, years of battles seemed inevitable. Not for the first time she wondered what impact their absences would have on their children. "How do you feel about that?" she asked him.
"I cannot ignore that it will have an effect on them," he replied. "But I hope it will not be too long. It will never change my feelings for them, though, or for you."
Padmé knew it would not, even before he spoke such assurance. "Sometimes I feel selfish for taking this time now."
Obi-Wan nodded in agreement. "I don't know if there is much else we can do. There's only the fledging of a case, and all too soon the war will call us back." he paused, relishing the quietness and peacefulness which seemed to surround them, as if Varykino would be a haven to them from all the sorrows of the Republic's twilight. "It may seem trite, but the Force tells me to take this while we can, or we may never have another chance."
That advice from the Force never left their minds throughout their stay in the Lake Country. While it did nothing to sour the time they spent in the house, fields and the waterfalls, the words and the meaning behind them remained within their minds, serving to make the time profound and deep, a sacred series of moments they would carry within them always.
Time passed slowly, the Force was on their side, as they learned to live with each other day after day, to deepen the intimacy between them which had existed since they first met. Waking up together was still a novelty, despite their lives spent each with a sizeable household, there had still been times when they knew solitude, and now such time would only happen when they were apart, doing their duty. Knowledge of each other's habits, past, and opinions was another, for their natural reserve and distrust concerning security over the comways created a barrier over their more private personas.
It took time for them to realise that they had no need to test the waters between them, that they could express a dislike for aspects of each other's vocations, without one or the other being hurt by the feeling or opinion. Respect for the differences between them had long been one of the foundations of their relationship, something distance never destroyed. Days soon became filled with debates, another method of foreplay in expressing their love. Valuable insight was even gained due to the airing of some topics, as bit by bit they came to know how the other spent their life when they were apart.
What surprised Padmé the most was Obi-Wan's willingness to teach her anything she wanted to know about the Jedi, including lightsaber combat. It was a long held opinion of the Republic in general that the Order was mysterious by nature, rarely showing their gifts to outsiders. Keepers of the peace they may be, but few earned the privilege of seeing those gifts put into action. The Masters and Knights who weren't charmingly dismissive of their abilities or the curiosity shown by others, were arrogant to the point of intellectual snobbery. Obi-Wan however, as she had learned a long time ago, was an unconventional Jedi and held no doubt that his wife would be just able at handling a saber as well as she handled a blaster.
"If you're in trouble and I can't get to you, I'll be slightly calmer knowing you can use anything in range," he explained when she asked him why. The possibility that she might be facing someone else with a lightsaber remained unspoken.
She soon discovered that the Force was no impediment to handling a lightsaber, once the user adjusted to the weight of the hilt, combat with the weapon resembled the higher complex styles of fencing. Fighting with a sword was another of the self-defence methods Captain Panaka had taught her and her handmaidens when she elected Princess of Theed; so it did not take long before her husband came to realise that she was a quick study, the level of her ability in the Force the only barrier to reaching his level of swordsmanship which, while he never believed others who referred to him as one of the most formidable warriors within the Order, he accepted that he was just as competent as any Master Jedi.
Padmé strongly sided with the former, an opinion founded on the security recordings of the encounter with the Sith at the Palace, and fortified by the moments when she would wake to find that she had slept in, and he was practising Katas outside. Free of tunic, the thin short sleeve shirt and trousers he wore to protect himself from the elements of the dawn served only to remind her of his physical attractiveness, which, as she had come to learn during their new intimacy, had aged as well as his face.
Her mind sometimes drifted as she observed him, mainly to pause and reflect on what she had learned about him. In many ways he was still an enigma, some parts of his character as yet undiscovered by her inquisitive nature. That was half the attraction, the knowledge that she would never quite learn everything about him, even though he was more open and vulnerable with her than he ever was with anyone else.
His generous nature astounded her, even now. In the company of others, for there was a discreet kitchen staff at the lake house who left the supplies of foodstuffs that would sustain them while they were here, he was charm itself, but there was always a certain distance which the charmed never discovered until afterwards, when they had time to pause and reflect, and realised that the Jedi had purposefully revealed nothing of substance.
But when they were alone, amongst the lush greenery of the fields, the warm water in the lakes which his eyes reminded her of, or inside the house when the staff departed, that charm adapted to reveal his intelligence, his passionate side, his vulnerability, the emotions Jedi claimed to let go of, when really they were carefully controlled behind a disciplined mind.
She recalled back to the moments they spent on Tatooine, and realised that he had never hidden from her, she'd become a confidant from the earliest moments of their acquaintance. A result of her insistent curiosity or of the Force? Probably a little of both she decided. Though he had needed someone to confide in back then, they both did, swept into a crisis neither had any idea was likely just the first stage in a insidious plan to destroy the very thing they worked so hard to serve. Confidences between them was another foundation of their relationship, the comfort in knowing that neither would judge the other on the beliefs they confessed to hold, or the worries they harboured deep within. Something they would need for the future, she was sure of that.
Obi-Wan activated his lightsaber to continue the Katas, and for a moment Padmé's thoughts were broken by the steady hum, a sudden disturbance to the peace of this Nubian dawn. She marvelled at how the blue blade was an extension of his body, never coming close to harming him. A stray memory then slipped into the forefront of her mind, the moment when she had requested the surveillance tapes of the duel in the melting shaft from Captain Panaka.
Her chief of security had been confused by the inquiry, perhaps less so than when she abandoned negotiations with the Neimoidians in order to verify the truth of what she first saw in that vast room; a grieving apprentice couched over a dying mentor, but puzzled nonetheless. It took her a long time before she could actually bring herself to watch the tapes, knowing they would be hard viewing even with the knowledge that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had survived against the odds.
When the courage finally rose within her to follow through with her initial curiosity, there was surprise as to why she hadn't given in sooner. Caution over what was to come gave way to fascination as she observed the opening moves of the Jedi and the Sith, the techniques they used in combat, the noise from the constant hum of the lightsaber blades, punctuated by sharper decibels each time red clashed with blue and green.
By the time Obi-Wan fell from the catwalk Padmé found herself utterly wrapped up in the events with no thought as to the end result. Her emotions were just as conflicted as his was when he cried out through the laser shields as the Sith impaled his Master. And her heart stilled as she forgot to breathe when he fell over the edge into the melting shaft. She flinched as the Sith slashed the edge of the circular hole, the lightsaber causing sparks to fly from the cables which enclosed the perimeter.
Then everything within her jumped as Obi-Wan suddenly leapt from the depth of the pit and one swift movement snatched Qui-Gon's lightsaber from where it fell to disembowel the Sith. Tears fell from her eyes when he deactivated the blade to drop to the floor and gather his Master into his arms. How he managed to enforce a healing trance Padmé did not know, and she was surprised when Obi-Wan confessed to her that, still to this day, he didn't either.
Memory of this was brought on by his lightsaber teachings. Padmé had been surprised to be given his saber to use while Obi-Wan duelled with Qui-Gon's old one. She thought it would be returned to the Jedi Master after the fight with the Sith. However, as her husband had explained, both he and Qui-Gon constructed new ones upon their return to Coruscant, the Master bestowing his old saber as a gift to the Padawan when he passed his formal trials. She had found it odd that an Order who claimed to forbid possession would let sabers become the exception to that rule.
Padmé allowed a smile to grace her features as she recalled asking if she could construct her own. Obi-Wan replied that it would be unwise for a Senator to show such knowledge of the Force to have a saber attuned to their body in times as these. Then followed their first fencing bout, the end result turning into a tussle on the floor which was a precursor to foreplay of a more sensual kind.
As if he had sensed the direction of her thoughts- it was very likely -Obi-Wan powered down his weapon and opened his eyes to meet hers with a charming smile. Clipping the saber to his belt, he straightened his posture before making his way over to her.
"You slept late this morning," he observed, dropping gracefully to his knees before her as she lounged on the bed.
Padmé shrugged. "You say this like it's an unusual event."
Concern crested his features. "It didn't used to be." Closing his eyes, he tentatively touched the fragile tendrils of the Force which resided inside her mind, seeking for a change in the currents. Sensing nothing apparent on the surface he delved deeper, sifting through the layers as any archaeologist would when confronted with a dig site. The difference, when he did find it, was slight, but even at this stage noticeable. Concern gave way to peace, one which he had never known before, nor expected to encounter.
By the time he opened his eyes, his wife was considerably worried. "Obi-Wan, just tell me what's wrong?"
"Nothing, my love," he replied, rising from his knees to take his place beside her upon the bed. "Quite the contrary in fact."
She watched him with varying mixture of emotions, all of them displayed upon her face, free of the politician's mask since their first moment of intimacy like this on Geonosis. His smile grew as his mind contemplated the obvious conclusions, it was about right, after all, caution was the last thing on their minds at that moment. But he kept his silence, waiting for her to speak. Equality and honesty, two of the foundations of their union, along with intelligence and strength. It made for a compelling combination.
A smile eventually came to caress her mouth once more, one full of promise and mystery, the ever alluring temptation before which he would always willingly surrender. "How long do you think?"
"I am uncertain. Since Geonosis, perhaps?" He raised a eyebrow to accompany the inquiry. "You would know more about this than I, my love."
Padmé nodded distractedly as her own mind contemplated the math. "I wonder if we'll be lucky enough to be together when the time comes?"
He frowned at her, the full impact of the expression belied by the utter joy displayed across his azure pupils. Softly he quoted part of the Code. "'There is no luck, there is the Force.'" Then with an extra degree of gentleness, he took her into his arms and surrendered to that temptation.
End of Episode II.
Author's Note: This was another part which I thought should be an M rating, but if my readers think differently, please let me know. As I did with Episode I, next week's post and the week after that shall be covering the gap in between AOTC and ROTS. Then I shall move on properly to events in the Movie and Novel. Finally, thank you all again for your many kind reviews and responses. I treasure each and every one of them. My thanks also to the members of the Obidala Forum, who opened my eyes to this wonderful pairing in the first place.