¹Destiny | Padme Amidala

Forbidden Kiss

The next morning I woke up and looked at the clock: half past ten in the morning. It was the first time I had slept without a nightmare. As I threw the covers off of myself and sat up, a piece of parchment sat on my bedside table next to my lightsaber pulled my gaze. Grabbing it in my hands and opening it slightly, I read in my head:

Good morning Timothee,

When you wake up, meet us downstairs for breakfast.     

Padme :)

I smiled to at the note before getting ready for the day. When I was ready,I headed downstairs for breakfast, just as the note said. The distant talking of the  Naberrie family grew louder as I approached. Soon enough, I stepped into the kitchen and immediately four pairs of eyes had fallen on me.

"Good morning." Padme beamed. "Morning." I replied and smiled slightly  as I took my seat next to Padme. Padme's father nodded at the me with a smile as he peered over the newspaper in his hands, and I simply nodded back at him.

Padme's mother, who was at the stove, spoke in a cheerful tone, "Did you sleep well, Timothee? We just redid that guest bedroom."  "Yeah, I slept great. Probably the best sleep I've had in a while." I answered her honestly.

"That new mattress was worth the investment then, I reckon." She beamed as she turned from the stove with a pan in her hand. She walked over to us and placed two filled pancakes with chocolate cream and strawberries on each plate. 

 Padme's father put the newspaper down and looked over at his  youngest daughter. "Have you got your bag packed?" "Yes, I packed last night." Padme answered him at once.

"Of course you did." Sola laughed to which Padme playfully slapped her on the shoulder. Then she turned to me. "Now Timothee, Padme tells us that you're a Jedi. What's it like?" "It's difficult. " I confessed to them after I took a sip of the water from the cup in front of me. "You travel a lot..."

And for the next half an hour or so, Sola and I engaged in a lengthy conversation about the life of a Jedi to which Padme and her parents chimed in every couple minutes or so.

I had to admit that I had been  nervous about the whole meeting the family thing because I had very little experience with such a respectable and loving family dynamic. However, by the end of the visit, I could safely say that the Naberries went above and beyond to make me feel like one of their own.

After a very good breakfast, it was time for Padme and I to head out to the lake country. "The water is beautiful." I gazed me smerized at the ocean, where the white caps glistened in the warm midday sun."When I was little we went to the cottage often. We swam - I loved it." Padme replied, lost in thought and reminiscing. 

"Unlike Tatooine." I paused. "Everything here on Naboo is so . . . colorful - beautiful." I turned his head toward her. "Its inhabitants included." A slight grin tugged at my lips. Padme smiled warmly at me, my forming grin dying and a sincere smirk forming on my lips.

The rest of the drive to the cottage was silent, neither of us had words to spare. Soon a cliff, on which stood a building as large as a castle, could be made out in the light haze of the water. Firs hid the olive dome roof and birds danced around a tower. Tendrils of plants adorned the stone that surrounded the small castle.

"Wow." I gasped. My eyebrows had shot up in astonishment, my mouth slightly open. "Beautiful, isn't it?"Padme asked me and smiled dreamily at the building, but then turned her gaze to my speechless face. "Yes. "I replied her. But I was not referring to the castle, instead I was referring to a certain senator who was standing next to me at that moment and looking at me. "Like you." I added to which Padme blushed.

I was the first to leave the boat after the driver when we arrived at a small jetty. I was wearing my dark Jedi robe again. The silver hilt from my lightsaber at my waist was more noticeable than ever.

 I turned around and held out my hand for her. Padme, in her radiant rosy, backless robe took my hand  and stepped onto the land after me. "Thank you." She thanked me gratefully and then looked after the driver who was carrying the suitcases in.

We walked up a long wooden staircase, past flowerbeds and climbing vines. We reached a terrace with a breathtaking view. The sun was shining right on the water at this time of day, giving the place a mysterious, intimate aura.

"We used come here for school retreat." She told me as we walked past a small fountain. She pointed to a small island near the cliff. "Do you see that island? We would swim to that island everyday. I love the water. It's not too warm, nor too cold. "

 Meanwhile, we stood among the roses and leaves, leaning against the railing. In front of us the shimmering lake, behind which rose bluish and purple mountains. " We used lie out on the sand and let the sun dry us." She enthused, smiling at the memory. "And try to guess the names of the birds singing."

For a few seconds we listened to the chirping of the birds, like a song to accompany this beautiful, kitschy moment. The sound of light waves slapping against the stones rushed softly in the background.

"I don't like sand. " I muttered and briefly contorted my face at the memory of how Obi Wan, when I was younger, used to carry a bag of sand around and throw it at me when I messed up or got on his nerves, and how Anakin and Maven could only make fun of it. "It's coarse and rough and irritating."

I propped my arm on the railing to look her in the eye. I simply could not take my eyes off her beauty. I knew that Padme noticed it, but she continued to look demonstratively at the water. "And it gets everywhere." I smiled slightly, then turned my gaze back to the water. "Not like here. Everything here on Naboo is soft . . . and smooth."

My eyes found their way back to her. Now Padme turned to me and lost herself in my green eyes. And then, almost without realizing it, I reached out and stroked the soft skin on Padme's arm. I almost pulled my hand back when I realized what I was doing, but since Padme didn't mind, I left my hand there.

She looked a little uncertain, a little afraid, but she didn't back away. I moved my fingers from her forearm and up to her exposed glorious back, affectionately caressing her shoulder blade.The clear, flawless texture of her skin felt so unbelievably soft and smooth like silk under my calloused fingers.

"There was a very old man who lived on the island. " She told me. She looked into the far distance. "He used to make glass out of sand - and vases and necklaces out of the glass. They were magical."

I came a little more and looked at her intensely. "Everything here is magic." I said.  "You could look into the glass and see the water. The way it ripples and moves. It looked so real....but it wasn't.""Sometimes, when you believe something to be real, it becomes real. Real enough, anyway....."

For a block of time, I thought she was going to turn away, but she didn't. Instead, Padme gathered up the courage to look into my green dreamy eyes trained on her own chocolate brown ones. "I used to think if you looked too deeply into glass, you would lose yourself." She said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "I think it's true...."

I leaned forward, brushed her lips with mine, and a moment later she still resisted, but closed her eyes and lost herself. I pushed me even closer to her, to a real, passionate kiss, let my lips slide over hers, slowly, back and forth. I could have lost her, kissed her for hours, forever... But then Padme suddenly backed away, as if waking from a dream.

"No,I shouldn't have done that." She murmured, her voice laced with both desire and regret. "I'm sorry. " I apologized to her honestly, no arrogance or vanity in my voice. "When I'm around you, my mind is no longer my own." I stared at her, lost in her beauty. But the moment had passed, and Padme leaned on the railing again to look out over the water.