Padmé felt the anticipation in the crowd, a slow building rumble that ended in the roar of applause she'd grown accustomed to.
"That's another home run for Skywalker, folks! What a way to end the season!"
Her face lit up, clapping and waving at her boyfriend who shamelessly turned to blow her a kiss—one of his newest 'traditions'—before he took his lap around the bases. She listened to the announcers praising Anakin's year, giving game statistics she still didn't understand, and soaking in the cheers around her.
Dormé grabbed her shoulder tight and shook. "Another one! Your man has been onfireall year and I don't care what you say..."
She rolled her eyes, shoving her friend in return. "I did nothing!"
"Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that while he's winking and waving at you from the dugout. Probably thinking about you during all those practice swings…" Dormé took a sip from her drink, making an obnoxious noise with the straw. "I know you have some kind of pre-game routine. All those athlete types do!"
She just laughed and shook her head. "I havenoidea what you're talking about."
"Tell that to your blushing cheeks!" Saché yelled, climbing from row to row down the bleachers to join them.
Padmé pulled the baseball cap on her head further down to shield her face from the sun—and more importantly, her friends. Of course there was a 'ritual.' She might not be the most well-versed person with sports, but she'd learned that once you start winning, you don't mess with what led to that success. At least that's what Anakin swore by and from her position in the crowd at every game since they started dating… She couldn't really argue with that.
She and her friends reached the bottom of the stairs, stepping off to the side to wait for Anakin. As the rest of the crowd filed out, she was nodded and waved at, occasionally high-fived, and given a few nasty looks from jealous women and those supporting the opposing team both. Even if she should expect it when she was wearing his oversized jersey with his name and number splayed across her back, the extra attention was still not welcomed. Dormé would flip them off if Padmé didn't keep an extremely close eye on her and Saché was known to cough out insults at particularly nasty people. She might tell them to knock it off in public, but in the back of her mind she was so grateful to not be there alone.Comes with the territory, she reminded herself.
Another round of cheers interrupted her thought and she knew what that meant. Without another moments notice, Anakin scooped her into his arms and swung her around. He wasbeaming.
"Did you see that?!" He put her back on her feet, all smiles when he reached a hand out to her friends for high fives. "Holy shit. What a game!"
Looking at Anakin, smeared eye black and all, his energy was so infectious. It was impossible not to feel his excitement over every single win of his and smile right back at him.
It didn't matter that he was long considered their best player with no real rivals in sight. He still played every game with everything he had. That was something she'd learned about him in the year they'd been dating. He wasn't quite as shallow as she assumed.
His heart was as big as his grin and there was integrity behind his actions. She learned to attribute that to his mom who she was lucky enough to spend the winter holidays with when she really got to know Anakin, away from his reputation on campus where people treated him like a kind of chosen one. There, in a tiny town she never knew existed, they were just two college kids trading horror stories about professors, party tricks, and every wild story involving their friends that they could think of. Her heart was already his by then, but during their late nights on his back porch, playing fetch with his dogs, she'd really fallen in love. Anakin always swore he was all-in the second she agreed to a second date, and more in love with each agreement after.
Ask Dormé, though, and she'd say it was her bar crawl idea to look for a hookup that deserved the real credit for their eventual relationship. Padmé occasionally went along with that backstory.
Anakin brushed back his shaggy curls, grown out now to reach the base of his neck after a lost bet made him shave his head in the preseason, and stole the hat off Padmé's head. "Whew. Is anyone else starving? Pretty sure I could eat like three meals right now."
"You'd deserve the first two. Gotta watch that golden boy figure with the third, though," Dormé joked. She patted his stomach then yanked her hand back to wipe his sweat and the dirt on Padmé's shirt.
"Thanks," Padmé said, wryly.
"What? You two share sweat all the time, I'msure. What's a little more?"
Anakin tilted his head toward Padmé, a small smirk on his face. "Well…"
"I'm going to leave you both!"
"I'm gonna leave all of you if someone doesn't tell me we're going to eat!" Saché chimed in, taking Anakin by the arm. "I'm with Skywalker."
Anakin laughed and saluted Saché. "Heard and understood! So… Where should we go? Padmé?"
Padmé took a deep breath and smiled. "Wherever you want. I'm right behind you."