AN: Happy Holidays! Xo
Mercenary: Yep, haha! She flips!
Travis Brown: Haha! Here you go!
Saving For a Rainy Day
We'd be so less fragile if we're made from metal
And our hearts from iron and our minds from steel
If we built an armor for our tender bodies
Could we love each other? Would we strive to feel?
And you want three wishes
One to fly the heavens; one to swim like fishes
And then one you're saving for a rainy day
If your lover ever takes her love away
Luke raced through the house, now standing before his mother and sister, who were resting their legs up comfortably on the couch.
Padme and Leia were both taken aback by his out-of-breath manner.
"Is it true?" He demanded, not blinking.
"What? What's wrong?" Padme sat forward, observing him vigilantly.
Luke's unsteady and rapid inhalations made him enunciate his words. "Is Vader our real father?"
"No!" Leia burst out laughing. "That's impossible. He's messing with you! Mum, tell him." Her hand flailed about to dismiss the news. But she grew quiet, noticing her mother's glaring silence. "Mum?"
Padme's pale face was all they were met with. Her body paralyzed – unable to fight off a rising panic.
"Tell him!" Leia urged, nervously, as her fear spiked.
"He told you..." Breathy whispers was all a contemplative Padme could muster – pretty much talking to herself.
"So it's true." Luke's jaw tightened as he pursed his lips.
"What? No." Leia gasped, sitting upright – her eyes anxiously going back and forth from her brother to her mother. "No!" She persisted, trembling inside.
Padme's heart leaped into her throat. Her glistening eyes on the verge of tears as she watched their hearts break.
"I didn't want you to find out like this." She lowered her head. She didn't know what to say, she was still in shock.
Luke shook his his head and stormed off.
"Luke!" Padme pleaded. And Leia got up to join him, pushing past her.
"Leia!" She urged, now getting up to follow them.
Leia turbulently turned back around upon hearing her mother's footsteps. "No!" Leia yelled out an indignant cry, causing Padme's movements to come to a halt. "Vader? Really? Vader is our father?!"
Before Padme could gather a clear explanation, Leia headed into the bedroom she shared with her brother, closing the door behind her with a hysterical strike.
Padme stood there, trying to give them some space to process it – trying to give herself a moment to figure out what she was going to tell them.
The kids had remained in their bedroom for at least a couple of hours when Padme knocked on the door.
"Dinner's ready." She called but no one answered.
Feeling exasperated, she knocked again. This time more assertively. "Please come out so we can talk."
"I have nothing to say to you!" Luke shouted from behind the door. Padme rubbed her brow as if to ward off a headache before her hand rested over her mouth. She began to walk back to the kitchen table. There was nothing more she could do right now.
Just then, she heard the door creak open.
"Leia!" She was perched on the edge of her seat as her daughter approached the dining table.
"Don't flatter yourself, I'm just hungry." Leia plopped herself down on the chair.
"Please let me explain–" Padme urged with gentle persistence.
"-you had plenty of chances to do that." Leia groaned. "So much for getting better at communicating, eh?"
"You have no idea how hard it's been." Padme affectionately objected.
And a wave of frustration rushed over Leia. "Yes. We. Do!" She dropped her fork back on the table. "That's all we heard from uncle Ben."
She began to mimic his voice. "Don't bring up your father because it's hard on your mother. Be patient, think of her feelings."
Leia scoffed. "We've been walking on eggshells around you."
Padme's eyes flew closed as she apologized with a heavy heart. "I am. . .so sorry. I know I didn't handle it well but..." Her brooding eyes settled Leia who was eager to dismiss her excuses before she made them. Padme was overwhelmed with anxiety. "I made a mistake – people make mistakes!"
The sight of her dejected mother resulted in a more pensive Leia, stopping herself from arguing. She was good at being strong for others, even at times when she hadn't let her own pain sink in. Her voice adopted a softer tone. "We gave you time. So just. . .give us time."
Padme apprehensively bit her fingernail as she watched Leia eat.
Finally, Luke trudged out of the bedroom.
"Luke!" Padme called hastily – her pitch laced with sympathy and reflectiveness. She couldn't quite read his inscrutable face but she hoped he was coming around.
Instead, he grabbed his plate, about to head back to his room.
"Come on," She soothed, pleadingly. "Sit with us."
His furious eyes caught hers for a second before turning on his heel.
Padme dropped her napkin on the table and got up, gravely. "You know what–"
"–the ball, Luke!" She blurted out.
"What?" He stopped in his tracks, peering back at her.
"The book Uncle Ben reads to you?" She spoke with burgeoning exasperation. "The one about letting go of your anger. . .that burns your relationships?" She folded her arms and eyed him sternly. "Let go of the ball, Luke."
It was now Luke's turn to shoot her that same grim stare that he inherited from her.
"You're comparing you lying to me about who my father is to some dumb book?!" He barked.
He flounced out of the room, slamming his bedroom door shut behind him.
Padme fell back onto her chair, haphazardly, giving up.
"You should really read that book again, mum." Leia's narrowing eyes met her mother's – a pinched expression on her face. "You're holding on too tight. Let angry people cool off."
"I just want you to hear my side." She supplicated.
"It's your turn to be patient." Leia maintained, reiterating Obi-Wan's words. "It's your turn to understand."
Padme nodded. "I will."
"And while you're at it. . .pray for peace." Leia' said sharply, struggling to hide her own resentment.
Padme couldn't sit here twiddling her thumbs. Seeing the pain on her son's face, seeing her daughter try to suppress her own emotions about a situation as dire as the return of the absent father, she couldn't believe Vader would drop this bomb on them.
She began to quiver with anger at the thought of it. He has stepped over the line one too many times, causing this family so much suffering.
"That's it!" She slammed the palm of her hand on the table and fiercely got up.
"Where are you going?" Leia studied her, watching her approach the door Taul warned them to steer clear of. "Don't go in there!"
But Padme defiantly pushed the button that opened up the pathway to Vader's chamber.
Padme came blazing through the hall and into Vader's chamber.
"How dare you?!" Her razor sharp glare settled on him just as one of the droids was about to disassemble his suit.
He held his hand up before the machines could touch his suit, preventing them from taking off his helmet. He glanced up at her. It was hard to concentrate with her luscious curls cascading down her shoulders, and knowing her elegant curves were under that green velvet dress – the image of her naked body replayed over and over in his head since he walked in on her changing that night.
However, her chiding tone helped him snap back into focus.
"How dare you tell him!" This wasn't a question, and he knew it. He could feel her deepest fears masquerading as anger. Her lip quivered, her eyes a fiery sting that typically would've had the old him wanting to console her, embrace her in his arms until she felt at ease. But he didn't have any empathy for her now.
"He deserves to know the truth." Vader spoke coolly, relaxed in his chair. "He was bound to find out sometime."
"You have turned that boy's world upside down!" A shrill cry came out of her. "And Leia. . .this is her worst nightmare!"
Even if he weren't wearing a mask, she wouldn't have been able to gauge his expression. There was nothing beneath it but a deadpan face. "Don't blame me for your mistakes."
"Excuse me?" She spat. Her shoulders rolling back.
"I'm not the one who lied to them." He sighed. It seemed he was being intentionally nonchalant, irritating her – ignoring the fact that her face was contorted with rage. "This one's on you, Padme. You should've told them the truth."
"Why you smug son of a–" She fumed and began attacking his machines, smacking the desk, slamming her fist on the buttons, pulling out wires.
He charged over to her in a flash, grabbing her hands off his technical equipment, holding her in place. She tried to resist his death grip on her wrists, that seized her to the point it hurt.
"Stop." He growled calmly, cornering her to wall.
Her noisy constrained breaths were released after she finally stopped fighting back – accepting the defeat which, in turn, made him loosen his grip on her wrists.
Her hostile glare didn't waver, though. Her nostrils flared as he met her steadfast stare. "As far as I'm concerned, their father died 10 years ago."
Vader's hardened eyes narrowed into slits behind the lenses. "Whatever gets you through the night." An intense exhale left his mouth. "But they're my kids. And you're still my wife."
"No." She hissed, looking down at her arms, squeezing her wrists to help with the aches after he released them. "My husband would never be as cruel as you!" Her voice began to boom, as her eyes returned to his mask. Her heart raced as she willed herself to stop trembling.
"Fine. I'm cruel." He grunted out, tensing his muscles. "But you've done stuff too."
She scoffed derisively at his words, almost laughing at him, which only made him take a vengeful step closer to her. She now felt smothered, pressed up against the wall. His chest blocking her view and turning her breaths, that escaped her lips, into muffled sounds.
"Imagine tearing apart everything you know for someone. . .who brings Obi-Wan to kill you." His jaw clenched, remembering the betrayal like it was yesterday. He had pictured it enough times in his nightmares.
"You're with him." Anakin raged at a teary-eyed Padme whose eyes were frantically darting from him to Obi-Wan. "You brought him here to kill me!"
"Believe what you want." She huffed lazily. She didn't care for his paranoid outbursts anymore, forcing her into submission.
"I killed for you." He bellowed in a gruff voice. "I almost killed myself for you. I'm stuck in this suit because I wanted to save you!" He felt like a ticking time bomb. The flickering flame within him about to explode.
"Well, if I had known what you'd turn into. . .you should've let me die." Her eyelids lowered – and a feeling of inertia took over.
"I love you!" Padme beseeched. Her imploring eyes were desperate to connect with him, to bring back the man she knew and loved.
Padme shook her head slightly as she let out a bitter sigh.
His hands clenched into fists at his sides, his eyes shooting lasers through his red lenses. He hated how her once warm brown eyes were now replaced by a vacant stare.
"I'd rather die than be your wife." She snarled like she was disgusted.
"Liar!" Anakin roared, wanting to silence her, sick of every deceitful word that came out of her mouth.
And as her words left her lips, he felt himself going over the edge, shaking with untamed aggression. The way she said 'wife' made it sound like it was the most disgraceful term in the world.
Overcome with a surge of wild, violent fury, he no longer cared to contain the tightness he felt in his chest.
Suddenly, he grabbed her by the neck with his metal hand, wanting to crush her throat so she'd never utter vicious words again.
He remembered watching a pregnant Padme struggle as her hands pawed at her neck, trying to release herself from his clutches.
Abruptly, he removed his hand off her neck after seeing those same bulging eyes again, hearing her voice lose its ability to produce sound as she suffocated in silence.
His breaths ragged, panting as he was reminded of how much regret he had about the first time he choked her.
Padme began to cough as she was released. Her entire body felt like it was crumbling under the stress of the attack. She couldn't swallow her shallow breaths as her shaky hands cradled her neck protectively.
Looking up at him, traumatized by the experience and how painfully hard it hit home, she frantically ran out the door she came through.
Standing there in the hall, she couldn't quite make it to the apartment. Her heart ached so much it felt like she was stabbed repeatedly in the chest. It all felt too familiar. Her body rested back on the wall for a moment, waiting for the pain to go away.
She began to sink to the floor. A flood of tears collapsed down her cheeks as she held onto her knees, trying to self-soothe.
You say you want to know him like a lover
And undo his damage, he'll be new again
Soon you'll find that if you try to save him
It renews his anger – you will never win
And you want three wishes
You want never bitter and all delicious
And a clean conscience and all its blisses
You want one true lover with a thousand kisses
You want soft and gentle and never vicious
And then one you're saving for a rainy day
If your lover ever takes his love away
The Pierces - Three Wishes