Two Halfs of One Warrior • Obikin/Vaderwan One-Shots

The Fall of the Master Part 2

Chapter 5: Intermission: The Knight

The difference between Naboo and Tatooine never ceased to amaze Anakin. The first time he had set foot on Naboo, in his childhood wonder, he had turned to Qui-Gon and remarked that he had never seen so much green in his entire life. Jar Jar had taken him underwater to see Otoh Gunga, and Anakin had scarcely been able to breathe as he realized that there was water all around him.

Anakin had been away from Tatooine for most of his life and had spent plenty of time on Naboo with Padmé, but he still expected to be hit with a wall of still, dry air every time he opened a window.

Instead, he leaned his head against the open window in Padmé’s room and let the cool, humid air caress his face. Padmé had always complained about how the humidity affected her curls, but Anakin loved it. He missed Tatooine—a shameful secret that he had never been able to verbalize—but he loved Naboo.

It was a scene that was familiar to him. He and Padmé had spent dozens of nights tucked away in her lake house during secret trysts and romantic escapes. Aside from Padmé’s apartment in Coruscant, it was home. Anakin had come to associate the house with peace, love, and healing. The mornings would bring half-awake cuddles and the evenings would pass with Anakin and Padmé spreading a blanket on the shore of a nearby lake and talking as the Galaxy appeared above them.

“This feels wrong, Ani,” Padmé said, anxiously pacing through the room behind him. The pacing began the moment Obi-Wan had taken off, leaving them with nothing but confusion and, in Anakin’s case, longing.

“I’m sure he has his reasons for keeping us in the dark,” Anakin said, staring at the spot in the sky where Padmé’s ship had disappeared. He felt like if he stared long enough and hard enough, Obi-Wan would reappear.

Anakin had replayed the moment over and over in his head, and letting Obi-Wan walk back onto that ship was the hardest thing Anakin had ever done. Harder still was thinking about how after every adventure they had been through and every danger they had endured, Anakin was supposed to let Obi-Wan go alone and without help.

But Anakin had to trust him.

“He’s never hidden anything from us before,” Padmé said, agitated. “Especially when it’s about our safety.”

It occurred to Anakin that the situation was typically reversed. In stressful times, he was the one prone to pacing and speculating while Padmé would calmly sit and try to come up with reasonable, rational explanations for what was happening. Anakin would never listen to her, but Padmé would still endure his ranting with gentle annoyance.

“It’s the end of the war,” Anakin said. “We’re both important people, Padmé. How many assassination attempts have you survived? This is probably just another one of those.”

And with Obi-Wan’s visions, Anakin knew it might be safest to stay put. He didn’t share this thought with Padmé, because there was no telling how she would react to such a prospect.

Padmé huffed, and Anakin looked at her. She was as disheveled as Anakin had ever seen her—her curls were losing their pattern fast and she had changed into much simpler sleepwear after sweating through her nightgown escaping Coruscant.

She remained the most beautiful woman Anakin had ever seen.

“Why aren’t you more concerned?” Padmé asked. “For all we know, this could be another Geonosis. He could need our help!”

“He would tell us if that was the case,” Anakin said.

“Anakin, can you just fucking react like you usually would?!” Padmé said, and then she grimaced and laid a hand over her bump. “See? Even the baby can tell something is wrong.”