On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter LII

Padmé opened her eyes, the warm morning sun streaming through the cracks in the blinds and slowly but surely prompting her to a drowsy state of awareness. The first thing her hardly awake mind noticed was the man across from her—a battle angel in mortal form she would say had anyone asked. Anakin's eyes were closed and his face relaxed in a way it only was when he was sound asleep. His left arm was resting heavy on her waist, as though ready to draw her into his embrace.

In fact the Jedi probably would have long since done so, even in his sleep, if it weren't for the teen girl laying between them who had taken residence in his right arm, pressed into Padmé's usual place against his chest. The woman smiled slightly at the sight before frowning as her slowly waking mind recalled the nightmare that had brought the girl to their bed.

"Padmé, it's too early in the day to start worrying," a voice, rough with sleep, half groaned. Her eyes moved up to find sky blue cracked open and watching her.

Padmé took a moment to relish in the handsome appearance of her slowly waking husband—something she did not have enough of in her life—before returning her mind to the moment at hand. "Sidious attacked her, Anakin. Think about what that might mean!"

"First off, it's way too early for this conversation, Angel. Secondly, I'm pretty sure Luna knew what she was doing—even if he got something, I doubt it's much or anything useful. Thirdly, can't we go back to sleep?"

"Is that all you can think about?"

"At the moment, yes," Anakin answered wearily, his beautiful eyes once again closed, shut against the light. Padmé frowned again, at herself this time. She knew better than anyone else how little sleep her husband had been getting since they had gotten back.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"Don't worry about it, Angel. But you might want to quiet down before you wake anyone else," he responded, eyes opening once more even as Luna unconsciously shifted, her black hair moving to hide parts of the Jedi's mettle forearm. The teen settled down quickly enough as Anakin slowly moved his hand up and down her back in a soothing motion—small goosebumps appearing on Luna's bare arms when metal touched flesh. "She's been having nightmares all night," he whispered once the girl had stilled once more.

"You've seen them?" Padmé nearly mouthed. Her husband shook his head.

"No, just ended them enough times to lose count. She moves a lot when her dreams start going bad."

Well that partly explained why the girl was being corralled against his chest. "And here I thought she was stealing you away," Padmé teased drowsily.

"No one could steal me away from you, Angel," Anakin stated with a sleepy smirk.

Padmé had clearly married the most handsome man in the galaxy. She sighed in contentment as she allowed herself to relax and eyes to start closing. Anakin was right, it was too early for a lot of things. The Senate wasn't even meeting today.

She felt the bed bounce slightly as her husband changed positions before she felt something lift her up into the air slightly—under normal circumstances she would have started in surprise, but instinct told her it was just Anakin doing something, likely with the Force, and was probably also doing something to keep her from jumping in shock with the Force as well, so who was she to complain?—before she felt an arm under her, drawing her to her husband's side. Padmé opened her eyes to find Anakin had somehow rolled Luna onto his father side, leaving the other free for her. The woman smiled, sighing with contentment as she rested her head on his shoulder.