Precipice by shadowsong26

Original Author's Notes: As a note, there's a bit of fade-to-black/implied sex at the end of this chapter.

Reunion: Chapter 7

It had already been pretty late when Dad and Mom and Uncle Obi-Wan had sent her and Luke to bed, and it was even later now, but Leia still couldn't sleep.

Some of it was just because this place, Alderaan, was so different from anywhere else she'd ever been. Obviously, with its wide forests and soft sky and pretty mountains in the distance, it was nothing like home. But even when she'd been off-planet for lessons, or just to explore, it had never been like this. She'd been to plenty of beautiful places, sure-the moon where Uncle Rex had taught her to swim was still one of her favorite places in the entire galaxy-but it wasn't the same.

And some of it was that…even if she was kind of tired (okay, really tired), she couldn't stop thinking about everything. So much had happened since she and Dad and Uncle Obi-Wan had landed, that even being annoyed at the parts she wasn't supposed to know barely even registered.

(She did know those things, of course. She could hear a lot more through her headphones than Dad and Uncle Obi-Wan thought. There had been a bombing, on Coruscant, and that's why everything had been so tense when they'd landed. But Uncle Obi-Wan was looking into it, which was why he hadn't joined them in the garden until after sundown, so she wasn't worried.)

As for the rest...

There was Mom, obviously. Who Leia had already sort of felt like she knew, from Dad and Aunt 'Soka and Uncle Obi-Wan and their stories, but actually meeting her was different. She was kind, and beautiful, and fierce. Like Aunt Beru, kind of-that same soft warmth, at least when she was around Leia and Dad and Luke, but with a different kind of durasteel frame underneath. Sharper, maybe. She was more like Aunt 'Soka that way.

And then there was the way Dad had looked at Mom, and she'd looked at him, right when they'd first walked into that room. Leia had been mostly focused on Luke, of course, and all the little things that suddenly made so much more sense, but she'd still seen it. Still felt it. Like they'd been wandering in the desert for days and days and days, and finally found water again. There was bright and sunshiny joy, yeah; Leia had heard it in the way Dad's breath had just stopped for a split second because it was almost too much; but there was also also the…the…the doubt underneath it. Like they weren't sure if this was an actual miracle, or a mirage.

It made Leia mad. Not at the two of them, obviously. But at the people and the war that kept them apart. That made them doubt like that. She didn't like it when her dad was hurting, especially about something that made him happier than she'd maybe ever seen him.

Which was something she probably needed to work on, when she got the chance. She should take the time, pick at the threads of that tangle in her thoughts until she could smooth it out. Otherwise, she'd be too focused on how mad she was, and she wouldn't be able to figure out how to fix it. She'd talk to Aunt 'Soka when they all got home, she decided. Aunt 'Soka gave the best advice about feelings tangles like this one.

And she would just not think about it until then. Because it was distracting, and messy, and they only had three days with Mom and Luke and she did not want to ruin it. And one of them was already almost over.

But that thought actually helped. A lot. Because it was hard to not-think about something, but on top of all the other stuff, there was Luke.

And Luke definitely, definitely kept her mind off of being mad.

Leia had never thought there could be someone more important in her life than Dad, but she'd known her brother for less than a day and she was already pretty sure he counted. Well, okay, that wasn't totally true. Really, she'd known she had a brother for less than a day. She'd known Luke forever. Or at least that's what it felt like. He was her other self, the one from her dreams about the silver planet and the green place.

And he was here.

But only for three days, and then she had no idea when they'd be able to talk again. They could probably send letters, like she was pretty sure Mom and Dad did, but that took forever and it wasn't the same.

…but maybe she and Luke had another way.

It would be hard. And maybe dangerous-Luke felt all sort of muffled in the Force, kind of like how Dad and Uncle Obi-Wan had taught her how to hide herself as soon as she was old enough to remember, except more. And if it was important for her to hide, it was probably even more important for Luke, since he and Mom lived right under the Emperor's nose. The last thing Leia wanted was for the two of them to get into trouble. Or to get hurt.

But that didn't mean she wanted to give up the chance to actually talk to her brother.

Maybe...maybe if we just try to make the dreams stronger. If linking up like that already happens on its own, building on it probably won't get noticed. We probably shouldn't reach out on purpose, at least not yet, unless it's really really important, but...but we can use the dreams. We can keep talking that way. We don't have to lose each other for another ten years. Yeah. Yeah, we can do this.

Then again, they only had three days to figure it out. If this was gonna work...

"Luke," she whispered. "Hey, Luke, are you still awake?"

"Uh-huh," he said. She heard him shifting on the other bed, on the other side of the room, and saw his shadow sit up. There was just enough light from the moon drifting in through the window that she could see his hair sticking out in all kinds of weird directions.

"Okay, I'm coming over." Without waiting for him to answer, she kicked off the covers, climbed out of her bed, and picked her way over to sit on his.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," she said. "…you dream about me, right? Like I've dreamed about you forever?"

He nodded. "I mean, it's not about you, exactly. There's not usually people or anything."

"Just places?"

"Yeah," he said. "Mostly a big, wide-open place with a sky that never ends. Sometimes other places, but not a lot. Oh, and feelings. You get that, too?"

"Yeah," she said. "We should work on that."

"What do you mean?"

"Make it…I dunno, stronger," she said. "'Cause…'cause letters take forever. But if we can figure out how to control the dreams, maybe we can talk that way."

Luke thought about that for a minute. "That would be awesome," he said. "'Specially if we can figure out why it happens when it happens-'cause, it's not every night. Right?"

She shook her head. "No. Prob'ly when we're both asleep at the same time or something?"

Luke made a face. "That means calendars."

"Okay, let's forget about that part for now," Leia said quickly. She was okay at figuring out different calendars from Tatooine, 'cause it was easier to track when Dad would be home if she knew sort of what time it was where he was. But it was hard and annoying and it was way too late to try and figure that out. Especially since she and Luke only had a couple days to make this work.

"Okay," Luke agreed. "So, how do we do it?"

She tilted her head, considering. "Let's try...let's start with meditating together. So we have a better idea of what linking up feels like and we can figure it out faster when it happens on its own."

"Makes sense,"Luke said, and grinned at her.

She grinned back. "Okay. Close your eyes, and do what I do."

"Right."

She reached for his hand, just like when Uncle Obi-Wan had shown her how to meditate forever ago, so he had a clearer line to follow, and closed her own eyes.

It only took a few seconds for him to slide into place next to her, just as if he'd never been anywhere else.

This can work, she thought. This will work.

She squeezed his hand briefly, waited for him to squeeze back, then sank deeper into the Force to memorize this feeling, and make sure she would never lose her brother again.

Padmẻ woke early the next morning-the sun wasn't fully up; only a faint glimmer of pink light colored the edges of the blinds. For a moment she just lay there, waiting for her brain to catch up, basking in the feeling of the strange but familiar warm weight in the bed next to her.

More strange than familiar, really, at least like this. Even when Anakin had been able to stay the night with her back during the War, he was almost always up before her, since he usually had to leave before dawn. He would sometimes wake her to say goodbye, and sometimes just leave a note, depending on exactly how early it was. Either way, mornings like this, where she woke up still curled against him, with his steady heartbeat in her ear…

They were rare. Something to treasure. Especially since, in her experience, they never lasted as long as she wanted.

She shifted a little, partly because Anakin's metal arm was digging into her shoulders a little uncomfortably, and partly just to take a moment to memorize her husband's face the way it was right now-not quite how she remembered it, even allowing for the new scar along his chin. Older, naturally, and more...finished wasn't exactly the right word, but...something like that. Certainly still beautiful; that much hadn't changed. And peaceful, at least for the moment. The faint worry lines on his forehead were smoothed out in sleep-he was sleeping better than she remembered, too. She wasn't sure if that was just because of their current circumstances, or an actual long-term change for the better.

She hoped it was the second, but she was pretty sure it was the first.

Still, she thought. We're here now. We have this. I'm going to focus on that, make this visit special, and happy, for all of us.

Which meant that, as much as she was enjoying this quiet morning, this wonderful feeling of waking up in bed next to her husband, with nowhere else she needed to be...well, it was a little bit selfish to keep it all to herself.

She leaned forward and kissed him, very lightly, just enough to wake him up.

And, sure enough, Anakin stirred a little and opened his eyes. He smiled when he saw her, softly, and she smiled back.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," he said, and half sat up to kiss her back, which she welcomed warmly. "What time is it?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she said. "Early. I don't think the twins are up yet." She and Anakin had let them stay up-probably too late last night. And, in the grand tradition of ten-year-olds at sleepovers all over the galaxy, she was all but positive that they'd stayed up talking even later after being sent to bed. But…well, it was important to all of them to make the most of their time together, and she didn't regret it. Not right in this moment, anyway. Luke could catch up on sleep after this was over, and probably Leia could, too.

He nodded, and took that as permission to sink back again, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back as well. "I'm sure they'll come find us when they are."

"Probably," she agreed, and shifted to a slightly more comfortable angle, resting her head right where it fit best on his shoulder.

The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence. Which...was nice. They didn't need words, not this morning. Their letters, of course, meant that the two of them didn't necessarily have a lot of news to catch up on, just a lot of lost time to make up for. Just a lot of being together.

Of course, as beautiful and precious as this moment was, neither of them was all that good at being still and quiet, and it didn't take long for Anakin to break the silence.

"You know," he said softly, "I can't actually remember the last time we did this? Just…lay here, listening to the sunrise together."

"After the wedding, I think," Padmẻ said, after a moment's thought. Even though it didn't happen a lot, the two of them had occasionally been able to wake up together, back during the War. A few times on Coruscant, or, once or twice, when they'd managed to find a mission together as an excuse to spend some quality time…

But on Coruscant, even if Ani hadn't had to rush out the door immediately, they'd never really had time for more than a few minutes of kissing and cuddling before needing to get ready for the day and get back to the real world. And on missions, they were…well, on missions.

"Yeah, that sounds right," he said. "It's nice. A little weird, not having anything I need to get up and do, but...nice."

"I know what you mean," she said. "Well, we'll just have to do this more often."

"Every morning, while we're here," he agreed. "Spend some time together, quietly, just like this. Listening to the world wake up and holding on."

Which, of course, just made her think about what would happen after they left- they only had two more mornings here. Two more mornings to spend like this, and then probably at least a few years before they got another.

We're not going to worry about anything right now, Anakin's voice echoed to her, from a decade ago and lightyears away, and Padmẻ decided to listen to it.

She knew, of course, that they would have to discuss the future and the Rebellion and all of the things they needed to worry about at some point on this trip. Obi-Wan and Bail already had, and she knew that she and Ani would need to weigh in, too. Before they all scattered again.

But it didn't have to be now. It didn't have to be this morning. And she had her husband in her arms, in a quiet and peaceful and beautiful moment all to themselves, for the first time in ten years. She wasn't going to let it end. Not just yet.

Okay, so maybe she was still feeling a little bit selfish this morning.

She kept that particular thought to herself, and just said, "Absolutely. Or," she added, letting her tone turn a little mischievous and shifting position so she could give him a light kiss, "we could find some other way to pass the time."

"A brilliant idea," he said. "You're brilliant. As always. My brilliant, beautiful, beloved wife." He punctuated each adjective with a kiss, each one sending a warm thrill down her spine.

She grinned and pulled him closer, tangling her hands in his hair, just like she used to do ten years ago and more. "I love you, too," she said, and kissed him once again, harder this time.

He hummed a little against her mouth, low and warm and pleased; she felt his fingers flicker, using the Force to make sure the door was locked- good idea, my beautiful, beloved husband; who's the brilliant one now-and then…

Well.

Sure, there might be better ways to spend a free morning, but Padmẻ couldn't think of any just now.

In fact, for the next hour or so, at least, she and Ani were going to have a very pleasant morning that involved barely any thinking at all.

Original Author's Notes: So sorry for the long delay guys 3 life, etc...also, my profound respect to people who specialize in writing fluff. Y'all are awesome, this is not at all easy 3

Thanks so much for your patience and for sticking with me! ~shadowsong