Why Anakin is No Longer Allowed to Mentor

4. So You Aren't Flirting With Him?

Padme came into the apartment, and the second she saw her husband she glared at him.

"I hate you so much right now."

Anakin took one look at her expression and started laughing.

"What happened?" he asked.

Padme had a cross, but still slightly amused expression on her face.

"Your horrible sense of humor has rubbed off on me. Chancellor Palpatine was being ridiculous, and it just slipped out when I got too annoyed with him."

Anakin's cackling? That doubled immediately upon hearing that.

"Tell me everything, spare no details!"

A Few Hours Ago...

Padme was trying very hard not to lose her patience with the Supreme Chancellor. She was already highly suspicious of the man because of the things Anakin had been telling her of late, and had jokingly called it flirting.

So in a fit of spite, and not realizing one of the worst gossips of the Senate was nearby, Padme unthinkingly said...

"Are you going to continue to quibble over small details, or are you using this as an excuse to flirt with the Jedi Knights again on the grounds of an important mission?"

Dead silence, before Padme registered what she had said.

"Oh gods, I am so sorry..." said Padme, but the damage was done.

"No, please, explain what you meant," said Palpatine frostily.

"So you haven't taken an unusual interest in Anakin Skywalker?" she countered.

Padme knew for a fact Anakin was loyal to her. However his relationship with the man before her had always struck her as off, and now she had a chance to find out what the man's real intentions were.

"What makes you think I have taken an interest in him that way?" asked Palpatine.

Padme gave him a deadpan look.

"Really? The number of special missions you've sent him on? The amount of attention you've given him? Or how about the times you've had a discreet meeting with him in private?"

By nightfall, the rumor of the Supreme Chancellor having a thing for Jedi Knights as his 'partner' of choice had spread like a wildfire.

In the apartment...

Anakin was already howling with laughter by the end of it. Maybe now Palpatine would leave him alone for a while.

When he went onto the net to find out any juicy rumors he could then spread to the Padawans, he found himself suffering from a minor giggle fit as the pages with the best rumors were completely filled with the possibility of Chancellor Palpatine being gay, or having a 'fetish' for Jedi in particular.

Padme hid from the public for a full week before her strange sense of responsibility (Anakin loved his wife, but the word 'responsible' was never in his personal vocabulary for obvious reasons) had her back in the senate arguing with others.

Either way, it was pretty obvious she was on the Chancellor's shit list for a while if the looks he kept shooting her were any indication.

Anakin felt nothing but amusement as he admitted to being 'close' with Palpatine, but stating rather firmly he was straight and had a steady lover, since romantic relationships were strictly forbidden in the Jedi Order. Something that had caused him no end of headaches in the past.