A Cold Start - Anakin x Reader

bittersweet

I couldn't believe what I had just heard.

My mind was still racing, trying to process the gravity of the situation. That person, Katzo, whoever he was, knew about Anakin and me, and he was using that information to his advantage. I felt indescribable fear and shock, realising that our secret relationship was not so secret after all and the thought of someone using our love against us made me feel sick to the stomach. But how could it possibly have gone out? And what was going to happen now?

I knew I needed to tell Anakin about the threat, but the timing couldn't be any worse. We had just spent the most beautiful and intimate night together, and he was set to lead the starfighter squadron for our next mission, starting tomorrow morning. The last thing I wanted to do was burden him with this and distract him from his duties. Leading the starfighters in a battle against Grievous was dangerous enough on its own. Just a single moment of distraction could decide over victory or defeat and ultimately over life and death.

And I could not risk that, even though I knew Anakin would have a different opinion and would hate me to withhold something as serious as this from him. I hated it, too, and would much rather figure this out with him together, but I felt like it was my responsibility to protect him and the mission. I was sure he would have done the same thing with me and as soon as the mission was successful, I would tell him of course.

Feeling overwhelmed and scared, I finally set the comlink back on my bedside table and lay back down on my bed, trying to push the threatening message out of my mind. But unsurprisingly, sleep eluded me. I spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, haunted by the possibility of what this person could do to us, as Jedi and as lovers. I replayed the message and the name the unknown person had called himself hundreds of times in my head. Katzo.

And finally then, on the brink of insanity, a flashback struck me.

This night, the Queen was dining with her cousin again. That dark haired man with the crooked teeth and those bright blue eyes. But unlike at the afternoon tea the other day, they weren't talking about trivial things today. Instead, they were discussing very feverishly politics and the economic situation of Ondaria. Over and over again, a name was mentioned: 'Katzo'. He seemed to be kind of important because from what I heard from the conversation, he controlled certain money transactions. Was he a member of the intergalactic banking clan? Possibly. At least he was corrupt.

There we had it.

But all this flashback did was help to confirm that Katzo was in fact a real person and that he didn't lie when he said that he stood in relation to the Queen of Ondaria and her cousin. The real question, how Katzo could possibly know about Anakin and me, was still unanswered.

In my mind, I retraced our entire mission on Ondaria. Had there ever been a situation which would have allowed the Queen or her cousin to make any assumptions about Anakin and me and allow them to conclude that we were romantically involved with one another? No.

I couldn't think of a single situation. Anakin and I hadn't even really talked to one another in the presence of the two, because we were always busy serving them. And what was more, Anakin and I hadn't even been in a romantic relationship while we were on Ondaria! So how could Katzo even know about it?

The only person inside the palace who could have gotten the impression Anakin and I were more than just master and padawan was the son of the Queen's cousin- Kindon. Or Nik Don. Or whatever for force's sake his real name was. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, that he could have assumed Anakin and I were romantically involved with one another. It all boiled down to Anakin who had presented himself overly protective of me and who had gotten all angry when Kindon once jokingly called me 'his darling'.