Give Me Love

*chapter fifty three*

Ahsoka came back that afternoon. You met her in the hangar bay as Anakin took Artoo to pick up his fake arm replacements from the mechanic shop deep in the city. He'd be back by nightfall, grimacing as he explained the detail he had to go into planning his deception in order to get so much time off from the Council.

If the man was anything, he was thorough.

Ahsoka slung an arm around your shoulders as soon as she walked down the bridge to meet you, nuzzling her head into your shoulder and squeezing you tightly.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see a friendly face."

"Was it that bad on Keir-Eris?"

"Two words: Bugs and slugs."

You shivered.

"Well, at least you pulled in another win for the Republic," you bat your eyelashes sarcastically. "Soon they'll have to make you a Master Jedi."

Ashoka snorted. "Imagine they promote me before Anakin. He would lose it."

You laughed lightly yourself, hoping she didn't notice how the light didn't quite reach your eyes.

You wanted to tell her. Everything. But... it was all just so much. Just another person to drag into the hell that was you almost dying at every corner. And if she knew about you and Anakin, she would just be forced to keep it a secret from the Jedi. Her family. You couldn't do that to her.

No matter how much you wanted her to have your back. You knew she would, without a doubt. And she would stop at nothing to save you from your inevitable demise.

Maybe that's the biggest reason you didn't mention anything about your current situation. She and Anakin were too alike. She would ruin herself trying to find a way to save you, and you couldn't watch her crumble like that.

Plus, it was nice having this sense of normalcy. She didn't speak to you like you were about to break.

"You gonna get this clunky cast off anytime soon?" she poked your braced arm. You punched her with it lightly and rolled your eyes.

"I was actually going to head there right after dropping you off at the Council room."

"No need. I already did my debriefing on the ship."

"Overachiever. You wanna come with me then?"

"Can I get a lollipop if I do?"

"Those are for children."

"I am a child, technically."

"Fine," you laughed for real this time, tugging her along toward the medbay. She whooped in delight and began planning what flavor she would ask for as you traveled to the medbay, bustling with activity now that the transport ships were coming back with injured clones from Ahsoka's mission.

Your plan was fully just to rip the velcro of the brace off and return the equipment back to the medbay, but Rico himself was coincidentally digging through papers behind the front desk and overheard you talking to the secretary. He kicked your ass to a back room and ordered a med-bot to your room to take another scan of your arm before you could leave.

Ahsoka sorted through her arrangement of lollipops that she'd managed to sweet talk the secretary into giving her, deciding on two that she popped into her mouth at the same time.

"Root beer and blueberry?" you crinkled your nose at her choices. "That's disgusting."

"It's actually kind of delicious," she squinted her eyes thoughtfully. "You want one? You can have cherry, I don't like it."