Give Me Love

chapter one

The clinks of expensive china cups against dainty saucers was a familiar sound to you. That, and the trickling of freshly poured tea, jasmine and honey gently wafting to your nose, the push and pull of a spoon in creamy liquid, and a hushed conversation that carried with it a sense of nonchalant impressiveness. Homely, even— if that had been something you liked about your own home.

You hadn't— less to do about the tea parties themselves, with surprisingly delicious tea (that is, if you managed to sneak an extra sugarcube), and those pretty lace dresses and hair ribbons, but because of the company.

As soon as you turned 10, your mother began forcing you to attend these weekly socialite business gatherings. You were only there to sit still and look pretty, the future face of your father's medical legacy. He was one of the most renowned doctors and scientists in the galaxy, and you, with your special training ever since birth and natural knack for anything anatomical, were to one day take over. But all those tea parties as a child, sitting next to your mother like a trophy, never permitted to contribute anything yourself as dozens of strange women and men talked about you, your future, and your future business... Now, it didn't surprise you why the gentle clink of silver against porcelain reminded you of emptiness and boredom, frustration and fear, and the life you had left behind on Noxella.

Fortunately, this company was anything but that. Tori was humming quietly to herself, another tune she learned on the hills of the agriculture planet she was raised on as she touched the stalks of flowers and helped them bloom. She wasn't partial to tea, or any food for that matter due to the chloroplasts in her blood that fed off the sunlight and tinted her skin a slight green, but she mixed the tea politely and took a couple sips.

Vera and Freya, sisters who resembled sea nymphs with their blue skin and black hair and impossibly long, willowy limbs, bickered over who would get the last sugar cube. Their skin shimmered like the blingy minidresses they were wearing, Vera in purple and Freya in blue, like the scales of a fish. The people from their planet shared similar features, except the twins had been blessed with extraordinary features and soon rose to fame by modeling on billboards and television. Often for the pink-haired girl sitting to their left, who's clothing line has been the most popular in the galaxy for the last three consecutive years.

Celesta. She chucked a pastry at Freya, bumping off her silken mane and raining crumbs everywhere. Her high, quick voice told them to "cut it out", and then she was brushing food off the skirts off of her elaborately sewn gown. The frills and laces on this particular dress resembled the pastry she had weaponized, but you were used to her bold style. She was a born artist, expressing herself in her clothes, the impossible makeup she could do with the flick of a wrist, and the bob of hair that was always dyed a hot pink.

Sabè giggled at the interaction, bringing her cup up to her lips to hide the smile. "You could always split the cube," she offered after she swallowed, ever the diplomat. As a Representative of Naboo, she looked and acted like her superior and current Senator of Naboo, Padmè Amidala. Sometimes it freaked you out how similar they were, even more so than Freya and Vera, with the way they held themselves. The only difference was that Sabè was a little more relaxed than Padmè, a little younger and a little bolder with her actions.

Padmè, on the other hand, still held the poise of a Queen despite leaving that position behind a few years ago. Even now, she held her teacup and saucer in her lap, soft honey eyes gracing around the room with joy. She was happy— for the time off, for being able to spend some much needed time with her friends, for the good tea. Padmè was always the sweetest one of the group, the kind that everyone could rely on, almost like a mother. She was, in fact, the one who had brought you in when you arrived on Coruscant, arguing with the Intergalactic Medical Association for your certifications to be reinstated after they were cancelled when you left Noxella. Because of that, you were able to get a job in the temple medbay where you spend your days patching up victims of the Clone Wars, working towards a field license so that you could go on missions with the battalions and offer your skills on the battlefield. You were only a couple months away from that license, and it was all because of her.