On the day they arranged for Aayla to show her Ataru, Master Vos meets Padmé outside the Temple and bows to her before leading her inside. He makes the standard smalltalk—asks whether she's been to the Temple before (no, she hasn't; the architecture is beautiful) and how she's been in the last ten years (she's been well, thank you, apart from the assassination attempts). He even apologises that he wasn't able to catch up with her when they met a month ago. She can't help but feel that he's laughing at her somehow, despite being perfectly pleasant the whole time.
As they make their way through the Temple, various Jedi nod at them in greeting, looking curiously at her. Padmé is used to having people's eyes on her, but this feels different in some way she can't quite identify. They make it to the training ground unaccosted and Padmé feels oddly like she's getting away with something.
They enter out into a large courtyard with a handful of Jedi already present; there's a child—a padawan, Padmé supposes, from the braid hanging by their ear—practising forms by themself with their tongue sticking out in concentration; two other Jedi have their unlit lightsabers in their hands but are chatting off to the side.
Aayla is standing in front of a young Chalactan and correcting their form, moving one of their arms down slightly and demonstrating with her own how bent the elbow should be. She's… not wearing many clothes. Instead of robes, all she's got on are leggings and a top with one sleeve that bares her midriff—and as she turns towards them, her face splitting open in a grin, the light glints off her belly button piercing.
She has to spend twenty-four hours on a ship with this woman in two days' time and she has a belly button piercing. Even as she smiles and greets her, half of Padmé's mind is wondering whether she really does have to go to this party.
She does, of course—she needs to take every chance she can get to stop the MCA passing—but when she gave in to Sabé and Typho's insistence that if she had to attend Clovis's event, her pretend date should be someone trained in combat, she didn't expect to find herself wishing it were real. When she first saw Aayla out of her robes at that café date, she'd known she was in trouble, but she'd not been sensible enough to ask Aayla to ease up on the kissing or the holding her around the waist or the whispering in her ear so her breath tickled her neck. Would that have saved her from the way she's entirely forgotten how to say words as Aayla stands in front of her? Honestly, probably not.
Even Sabé had known what she was in for, smirking at her when Aayla left the day they planned everything out. "I suppose one way to get you to accept a bodyguard is to find someone you want to guard your body," she'd said, and she'd only grinned wider as Typho made a hasty retreat out of the room and Padmé's face turned the colour of the Red Guard's robes.
Perhaps she should have chosen Master Vos. It would be easier, then. He's handsome, but she thinks she'd be able to keep it separate. It's not just that Aayla is gorgeous that's the problem—it's that when she laughs, Padmé feels a little thrill and tries to catalogue exactly what caused it so she can do it again. Sometimes out of the corner of her eye she catches Aayla looking at her as if—well, as if this could be something real, like perhaps her feelings are as muddled up in the fiction as Padmé's.
Every time it happens she's less certain it's just wishful thinking.
"Are there particular things you want to see, or would you just like a basic demonstration spar?" Aayla is saying, and Padmé's brain finally sputters back to life.
"Whatever you'd like, honestly," Padmé says. "The only time I've seen a Jedi fight was you and Master Vos on Naboo against the droids." That had been impressive, of course, but it didn't sound much like what Aayla had described teaching; she can't recall prominent acrobatics.
"We can start with Ataru, then," Aayla says, before turning to Master Vos. "Master?"
Master Vos shrugs off his outer robe and they both move to stand a few metres apart in the centre of the courtyard. The Chalactan child comes to stand next to Padmé and introduces herself as Emins, drawing Padmé's attention from the duel about to start. Once Padmé has introduced herself in turn, she says proudly, "Knight Aayla says I could be as good as her one day!"
"Wow," Padmé says, smiling at her, "is Knight Secura especially talented?"
Emins nods enthusiastically. "She's the best. Well, Master Quinlan gets all offended when I say that but I think he's pretending."
Before Padmé can reply, the spar begins: the two Jedi watch each other carefully for a few moments, slowly moving in a circle, and then without any prompt that Padmé can see Aayla runs towards Master Vos, leaping just before she gets within lightsaber range and doing a somersault in the air before landing behind him. As she goes to strike him, Master Vos's lightsaber is there to meet hers, and the hum of lightsabers in motion becomes a crackle as they collide.
Padmé can't even see their lightsabers as anything more than a blur for a lot of the fight; they're always moving, even when Aayla or Master Vos are standing still, spinning in wide arcs that look effortless until Padmé tries to work out how they're doing them. The jumps and flips are clearly Force-assisted—even though neither of them are human, she's sure neither of them would be able to jump that high without it. She's not sure whether it's fortunate or unfortunate, but Aayla moves so quickly that Padmé doesn't even have time to get distracted by how much skin she has on display.
As Master Vos pushes Aayla backwards, she stumbles and Master Vos says, "You alright there, Padawan?"
Aayla laughs, already recovered and regaining ground with an impossibly fast barrage of strikes, and replies, "Perfectly, Master," before attempting to sweep his feet out from under him. He jumps to avoid it and then Aayla is behind him again, even though Padmé doesn't see her move. Beside her, Emins is watching with rapt attention, gasping when one of them gets close to a winning strike. Near the end of the fight, Master Vos falls over and Emins cheers, even though he's already rising and Aayla hadn't managed to touch him. (Though perhaps they won't touch, since this is a friendly spar?)
They're clearly evenly matched, anticipating each other's moves with an ease Padmé assumes comes from long practice. Neither of them tire, but Master Vos strikes with a force it looks like Aayla isn't expecting and this time when she falls, Master Vos puts the tip of his saber at her throat. "I yield," Aayla says, but she doesn't seem sad or angry that she's been beaten. She grins as he turns off his lightsaber and gives her a hand up, pulling her into a hug before they bow to each other.
"Knight Aayla, can you teach me the move where you did the—" Emins demonstrates a figure-eight movement with her outstretched arm, "—and then you did the foot thing and then you went sideways?"
"Of course, but it'll have to wait until next week—Master Quinlan is taking your next class because I have to leave for a few days."
Emins's excitement dims slightly. "Okay, but I'm going to remind you next week so you can't forget."
"That'll be very helpful," Aayla says seriously. "I look forward to it." And then she turns to Padmé, saying, "How was that?"
"Amazing," Padmé says, resolutely looking only at her face. (She hadn't realised before just how muscular she was, and now she can't stop noticing.) She searches for other words that aren't just synonyms like 'incredible' and 'beautiful' and 'impressive'. "I didn't even realise Jedi could move that fast."
Aayla chuckles. "If you want to see fast, you should see Depa—Master Depa Billaba."
"I've met her," Padmé says, recognising the name. "We went to Bromlarch together when I was a new senator to survey the damage from a groundquake." She remembers Master Billaba as a little unnerving, looking through her rather than at her, and the only fighting she'd seen her do was in her ship.
"If you're showing Lady Padmé duelling, can I show her too?" Emins says.
Aayla looks to Padmé, and she nods. "I would love to see you duel."
"What form do you want to show her?" Aayla asks. "She's only seen Ataru and some Soresu many years ago."
Emins hesitates and glances at Padmé, suddenly nervous. "Shii-Cho?" she says uncertainly. "I don't think I'm good enough at Ataru yet."
"You've only recently started learning," Aayla says, "so that makes plenty of sense. It's very grown-up to recognise your limitations. Besides, Shii-Cho will be more exciting for Senator Amidala, since it's new to her."
Emins, who had blushed and looked pleased at being called grown-up, turns to Padmé with a look of surprise. "You're a senator?"
"Yes, I represent the Chommel Sector. That's the one with Naboo and Karlinus and Kreeling in it."
Emins looks to Aayla, and Aayla adds, "It's in the Mid Rim, like if you went to Hosnian Prime and then just kept going."
"Oooh," Emins says, apparently finally recognising the region. "That's cool as."
"Who would you like to spar with? Me or Master Quinlan?"
"You," Emins replies almost before she's finished speaking. Aayla laughs.
"It almost sounds like you don't like me," Master Vos says, but he's smiling. At the slowly dawning panic on Emins's face, he shakes his head. "I know it's not true. I can't say I blame you—Knight Aayla is my favourite, too."
"Come on," Aayla says, rolling her eyes and beckoning Emins. "Let's show Senator Padmé Shii-Cho."
They bow to each other before they begin, and Padmé has a much easier time following this duel: Aayla is slower, holding back so she doesn't immediately beat Emins, and the movements are different. Neither of them do any jumps, though the strikes are still so fast Padmé doesn't think she would be able to replicate it. They remind her of the moves she and her handmaidens were taught—they hadn't focused on fighting with staves, but Captain Panaka insisted they learn the basics.
Both Emins and Aayla leave openings where the other could strike them—Emins accidentally and Aayla deliberately, Padmé suspects—but neither take advantage of them. Aayla even says, "Mind your left," at one point, leading Emins to shift.
Eventually, though, Emins misjudges and Aayla knocks her lightsaber out of her hand. Emins's shoulders slump, but Aayla says something Padmé can't hear and Emins nods.
"Did you like it?" Emins asks Padmé once they've bowed to each other once again and walked back over. Padmé does not get distracted by Aayla's midriff. She probably deserves some kind of medal from the queen.
"I liked it very much. In fact, I think I liked this one better because I could actually see what was going on."
Emins giggles. "What do you mean?"
"Master Vos and Knight Secura were moving way too fast—it was all just a blur," Padmé says, exaggerating the truth a little. "I learnt some staff-fighting that's similar to Shii-Cho when I was a child—I was older than you, but you're much better at it."
"Oh?" Master Vos says, looking intrigued.
"When I was queen, Captain Panaka trained us all in the basics of staff-fighting—Naboo doesn't have a distinctive form, or if we did then we lost it at some point, but he reasoned it was important to be able to use anything at hand as a weapon if necessary."
Master Vos nods approvingly, but Padmé's attention is again brought back to Emins, who gasps comically loudly. "You're a queen?"
"I was a queen," Padmé says, doing her best not to laugh at the way Emins is looking at her. "On Naboo, queens are elected; I served my four years and now a woman named Jamillia is queen."
"Woah," Emins says, apparently completely undeterred in her admiration by the temporary nature of Padmé's royalty. "Knight Aayla, can I go? I've gotta go tell Zev that I got to demonstrate for a queen."
"Go on then," Aayla says, amused. "Be good for Master Quinlan."
"I will! Goodbye Knight Aayla, goodbye Master Quinlan, goodbye Queen Padmé!" Emins runs off, and Padmé is glad she can make a small child's day by just existing.
"She's a good kid," Aayla says indulgently as she disappears into the building. "I don't think Zev will believe her about you being a queen, though."
"I'll corroborate it next time I go to the crèche," Master Vos offers.
"Excellent. Padmé, do you want to get a drink and then I can show you the Room of a Thousand Fountains? We've got plants I don't think I saw at the Gardens."
"Sure," Padmé says. Next to Aayla, Master Vos raises his eyebrows.
When Aayla asks if Master Vos wants to come with them, he shakes his head and says he'll see her tomorrow. He's still looking at Padmé in a way that makes her feel like he's laughing at her, but she tries not to wonder why.
As they leave the courtyard, Aayla makes an aborted gesture to hold her hand. Behind them, she hears Master Vos snort.