There were two possibilities here: either words no longer meant what she remembered them to, or she had rightfully lost her mind if the ones that left Anakin's lips were what she thought she'd heard and what he meant to say. Or a third mystery option that she didn't even want to think about.

"I'm—" Padmé started, snatching her drink to stall and relieve the drought that had settled on her tongue. She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, what?"

"What 'what'?"

Anakin, for all intents and purposes, stared back at her like she'd been the one to tell him she'd been unnecessarily running into him for months just… Because! As if she were the insane one sitting there at the table. He dared to stare at her like he hadn't considered her reaction. Which… Well, he probably hadn't, but worrying about that, too, would take more brain power than she had to give.

His thumb grazed over the back of her hand, startling her into remembering he was still in possession of her hand to begin with when she didn't answer right away. She yanked it away and squared her shoulders, trying to gain some ground back for herself through her astonishment.

"Just…" She glanced away, looking back at the green grass of the quad, littered with people. Anywhere but at him. "Oh my god, Anakin. This is too much. Why?"

"Why what?" he balked.

His own voice rose and caused her to snap attention back to him. The last thing she needed was to be causing a scene with him. Or… More of one than she was tempted to cause. One that would cause those buddies previously surrounding him to come even two steps closer, not to mention the hoard of women that had wrapped themselves around him.

"Keep your voice down," she hissed.

Anakin scoffed, ran a hand over his head, and let his hair down from the bun he'd tied it into. It fell unceremoniously and framed his face with those dark blond curls that she… Should not be noticing! Fuck… Get it together.

"You aren't making any sense right now. What's your problem?"

"Anakin…" How can anyone… "How can you just—" Be so insufferably easygoing, she wanted to say. Be so carefree and off the cuff and… She cut off her own thought and finished by stating the only gut feeling she had anymore. "You know what? I need to go."

Causing a scene be damned, she grabbed her cup and high-tailed it away from him. She rushed down the back corridor of the student union toward the stairs. They were definitely her best option—faster than the elevator, giving Anakin no time to catch up with her while she had to wait for it to return to their floor. No, this was much better. The fastest route outside, away from him, the experience, from wondering why on Earth he was coming to see her for no reason, and most importantly, why she cared this damn much about the fact that he had.

She just wanted to get back to her dorm room, where she could hide under the covers with her roommate and will herself to build a time machine to take her back to two days ago when she was blissfully unaware and not overreacting. With a redo, she could've gone out last night, got laid, and not been in a predicament wondering what in the hell she was going to say in response to Mr. Popularity's admission that there was clearly something going on in his mind between them. Or that he wanted there to be? Padmé didn't know anymore.

Behind her, she could hear him stumbling to his feet, the clattering of chair legs against the concrete floor, and hard footsteps running after her intermixed with his calling her name. But she was already moving too quickly to stop. Or to think any more about the scene she had caused.

It wasn't… He couldn't!

This was insane, and it was still way too early in the morning for that level of excitement. Anakin, going out of his way to be around her for months and her being too stupid to notice? She tried to think about what assignments they'd worked on since last spring and came up blank.

What did that even mean, anyway? His casual way about the situation only convinced her she was right all along. Going for coffee and a muffin with a playboy, however tempting, was a bad idea. Her daydream had ended before it had really begun. For the better.

She drained the last of her macchiato as she descended the last few stairs and threw the plastic cup in the bin before crashing right into the backdoor of the union. The impact crushed her arms against her chest, but rather than immediately falling on her ass, two firm hands gripped her shoulders and pushed her through the other door. The one next to the one with the large 'Out of order, please use the other door' sign taped to it.

"Padmé!" Anakin said at last, exasperated, while he steadied her on her feet as his eyes studied her face. "Are you all right?"

She shrugged her shoulders, knocking his hands away from her. Her composure regained, she took a small step back. "Fine. Perfectly fine…"

Anakin stared at her aghast, his mouth hanging open slightly and brow furrowed. "You just… Ran away from me and straight into that door and you're… Perfectly fine?" The last of his words he drew out slowly, emphasizing them with air quotes that made her want to strangle him.

"And you just told me you have been coming to see me for no reason for an entire semester. Yesterday I didn't think you knew I had an existence outside of the library, and now I don't even know what to think. Actually! What am I supposed to think?"

"I…" He stood up straight, leaning back against the wall of windows behind him. "Shit. I guess I thought you'd be flattered…"

"Flatter—" She shook her head and then grabbed him by the back to pull alongside her out of the second set of doors and into the fresh air again. Fresh air, fresh thoughts, fresh opportunity to do something other than… Lose her mind. "Blindsided is the word, Anakin."

"I'm sorry! I—Wait a second." He pulled her to a sharp halt and then stepped to the more secluded side of the building, away from windows, the quad, and the sidewalk where someone might walk by. "What did you think this was? You… Thought I wanted to study with you?"

The small smirk on his face he appeared to be fighting hard to conceal told her more than she needed, but she supposed she would humor him.

"I don't know how to better spell this out for you. But I'm your tutor. And you're acting like this was an outrageous conclusion to draw, considering not once have you spoken to me, approached me, sought me out. Nothing. Nada." She threw her hands up. "Where was I supposed to get any idea to the contrary?"

"Well, you're not my tutor, actually—"

"Cut the shit, Anakin! Until five seconds ago, I thought I was. Okay?"

"Okay, fine." Anakin's smile faltered just long enough to notice before he rolled his eyes and propped himself against the side of the building, crossing one foot in front of the other and folding his arms against his chest. "But you're wrong, you know. About the other things."

It was her turn to take the defensive posture, ending her useless pacing in front of him. "Really now? Pray tell?"

"Y'know, you seemed a fuck ton nicer in the library. And up until… I dunno. Ten minutes ago. Did I do something wrong by telling you? Do you have other plans I'm getting in the way of? Do you want me to go?" He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, taking a tentative step backwards but keeping his eyes zeroed in on hers.

"No! I—" She sighed and reached forward for his arm. He uncrossed them just in time to grasp her hand. "I…"

"You…?" He waited, dragging his shoe to scrap against the concrete until he was right in front of her and entirely too close again. Closer than in front of the library or in the Starbucks line, and this time in the secluded shade the building cast, far from prying eyes. This close to him, she felt… "Maybe we should start over again?"

"Maybe," she said, a softness in her voice that he took as an invitation to thread their fingers together and she didn't stop. With her head finished spinning, she wanted a do-over. It was more favorable than the annoying push and pull they were doing instead.

"I feel like you're judging me," he said, matching her softer tone. "I don't know why, but if you told me…"

"Then tell me why you kept coming to my sessions."

If she didn't know any better, she'd swear a shy blush dusted her cheeks at the directness of her question. His presence before her shrinking, unsure of himself.

Right, she thought. In your dreams, Padmé.

"I already told you."

"Yeah, to see me. But what does that mean? To… You. As opposed to all the others places and times you could've found me. I know I'm not you, but I'm not exactly hard to find if you wanted to."

Especially as often as she saw him lingering around parties and social functions, or even the cafeteria, she knew he'd seen her. If he looked hard enough.

He braced himself with his opposite hand pressed against the multicolored brick wall and took a deep breath. "I didn't think you'd talk to me."

"Unless I was forced to?"

"God, don't say it like—"

"That's exactly how you're saying it! This whole campus wants to talk to you, so you're going to have to do better than that."

"That! That part. That's why. And where you're wrong. I've seen you at your parties, with your whole group of friends surrounding you like a wall."

"Oh, please. You're being so dramatic," she said with a shake of her head. Padmé took another step toward him, swinging her hand in his as she did. How she could become that accustom to the way hers fit in his so soon she didn't try to figure out, but she was going with the pleasant feeling anyway. This was a do-over, after all. "No one's paying attention to us. Not when you and your boys are anywhere in sight. So, how am I wrong?"

"You think I care about all of campus. None of them are in the library. That's why I went—er, go."

She raised her eyebrow at him, and he dropped her hand to run it through his hair. "Really? To escape your stardom?"

"Well, that and I was failing that dumb ass politics class, and I'd never gotten higher than a B on a paper in my life…"

A laugh escaped her before she could stop it, and he dropped his head. Now she was sure he looked shy, and it wasn't something her brain was making up to pretend she had the upper-hand. He actually was being honest. She thought.

"You were doing pretty shitty…" she admitted. "Those papers were… Awful. And your practice test for POLS…"

"Fuckin… Thanks." Anakin clicked his tongue at her and turned away. "You done now?"

"I don't know, let me see…" Padmé tilted her chin up with her thumb, pursing her lips with a hum.

He glanced up, his head still inclined, and then he stood again and scoffed. "You're fucking with me."

"Yeah. Yeah, I am. But not about your shit grades! You and I both—"

"All right, all right. Enough about my stupid grades."

"Okay, so you come to see me to escape being popular? You do know this is still really hard to believe, right?"

Anakin slowly drew her closer to him until she had to tilt her head in earnest to look up at him. "Is it that hard to believe I want to talk to you? That I would with no one there to interrupt?"

There was that dry feeling in her mouth again, inhibiting her ability to say something quick back to him. "M-maybe…"

He untangled their fingers and gently brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. Lucky for her, it was brief enough to stop her before she did anything foolish like lean into his touch. "It shouldn't be."

"You're very forward…"

Anakin laughed, and for a brief second she felt a warmth from watching his smile overtake his face. "I've been trying to play it cool, and you didn't… Notice. So… I'm trying a different approach?"

She pressed her lips together. "I don't think you know the definition of subtle, actually. You went from saying nothing to saying everything. That is not the same."

"Are all of our dates going to be you judging my words? I thought you only did that on paper."

All of our dates. There was going to be another? She couldn't lie and say that the prospect didn't make her perk up, but still! The ego of this guy…

"We're going on another date? I wasn't sure this one was going that great."

"I mean, I've never had a girl actually run away from me on a first date, so that was new. But I thought it was now?"

The embarrassment returned to the forefront of her mind, never mind that he'd actually watched her run into a door to top it all off. And yet he was still thinking about the next time. A next time! Not that it was so far-fetched, if she retraced her steps leading here. This was a man that called her an 'angel' 10 minutes into conversation. One that had grabbed her hand in his and walked through the middle of campus like they did this every day. She supposed assuming a second date would happen just… tracked.

"…I'm sorry about that."

"No worries. I didn't know I was actually going to freak you out when I said it. But when you were confused, I didn't know what else to say…"

Padmé took a moment to look around and collect her thoughts. A group of girls rounded the corner toward them, and Padmé caught the glare from one of them once she noticed Anakin, too. She wanted to roll her eyes, but Anakin was too transfixed on her and she wasn't eager to get into yet another awkward conversation with him. Instead, she made a mental note that he was oblivious to his surroundings and if she agreed to go anywhere with him again, that was something to get used to.

"It wasn't one of my finest moments," she admitted with a small laugh, tucking her chin to her chest.

"You can say that again. I can't believe you thought I wanted to study. Do you usually get on Tinder thinking guys want an extra lesson?"

He waggled his eyebrows, making it clear that was definitely an innuendo, and then she was back to wanting to strangle him. As much as it caught her off-guard, she had to admit it was… Nice. To have someone be forward. The confidence—or obliviousness—that it took to do so, with no beating around the bush or pretending otherwise, was something she considered she could get used to. Even if it was from someone with one hell of a reputation to the contrary… That only reminded her of her ex's reputation for being one of the 'sweetest guys around', which couldn't be further from the truth. So, maybe his reputation wasn't either?

"No, you asshole." She shoved him playfully, and he grabbed her elbow, pulling her back almost into his chest. "Actually, I have to admit I only got on the app because my friends wouldn't leave me alone about it."

He nodded his head like this explained something he'd been mulling over. "Glad I could be your first."

"You are not my—" she started before he laughed again and pushed her shoulder.

"Now I'm fucking with you."

"I noticed. I still want to hear more about this idea that you couldn't find any other place in the world for us to talk except by torturing me with proofreading your papers…"

"Do you have somewhere to be right now?" he asked. Anakin stepped away from the wall and offered his arm to her. "Then you can get back to me on whether you're bringing your red pen to our next date or not."

She grinned, shaking her head but taking him up on his offer, anyway. "We'll circle back to it."

"Works for me. If you take off running again, though, try to watch out for the doors this time."

Her elbow jabbed at his side and he stole the opportunity to wrap his arm around her and squeeze her tight. Maybe she could get used to it… For the day, at least. Humor him. Hear out the ridiculous reason he'd have for not being as forward as he'd proven himself to be now. And then fill Dormé in on every bit later and lean on someone much more accustom to many, many dates for what she should do next…

"I'm not going to run away again," she murmured as he let her go again, but she failed to pull away. Not far, at least.

"Good. Was sort of counting on it."