|| Uninvited || An Anakin Skywalker Story

Chapter Sixty One

Hello, hello!

This one is largely a set-up for what's to come but important nonetheless. Shit's gonna go down REAL soon. Please don't hate me.

Love you all <3

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Kels's POV:

My room was exactly how I had left it.

Bedsheets laid in a crumbled heap, indicating my rush to leave and forgo making my bed before jetting off to Tatooine. A tube of berry lipstick was resting on its side on top the counter, it's missing top had rolled onto the floor to collect dust. Dishes were strewn carelessly into the basin of the sink. And my wooden chair remained pushed into the corner of the room, suffocated by jackets and sweaters I had been too lazy to hang up in the closet.

You'd never know that the girl who calls this room home had been fundamentally changed by a far-off desert planet.

In the few days I had been away, I had experienced the intensity of the blazing twin suns on my skin, I had fucked a very off-limits Jedi in a dingy cantina bathroom, I had been seconds away from taking a cruel Toydarian's life, I had physically felt the emotion of love in the most intimate way, I had witnessed Anakin's pain at his mother's grave site, and the very foundation of my trust in the man I love had been completely knocked off kilter.

I wasn't the same girl who had left a dirty mug haphazardly on the edge of the sink just mere days ago.

And the man who was at the very center of this metamorphosis, now stood next to me awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other as the door slid shut behind us. The silence permeated through my room, now cut off from the busy temple activity. I had kept my head down, trying to ignore the curious glances upon seeing Anakin Skywalker trailing a temple cook to her room. He didn't seem concerned by the gawking. In fact, he didn't seem bothered at all by the usual Jedi decorum that typically kept him at a distance in the public eye.

He had yet to shed the layer of anxiety that kept his shoulders tense, his eyes narrowed, and the physical distance between us minimal.

But now he stood only a step through the threshold of my room and watched me with his arms crossed and jaw set. Venturing further into the small living space, my feet took me to my bed. I could feel Anakin's sharp eyes on my back as I pulled the messy sheets taut, feeling the need to do something. The soft, familiar feel of the fabric was such a contrast to the uncomfortable, foreign tension blanketing Anakin and I.

"I'm just going to be here for the rest of the day. I won't run off anywhere, I promise." I said, moving on to straighten the pillows. "You don't have to stay."

"Are you dismissing me, Kels?" Anakin asked, a sharp edge to his voice. I turned to face him; he was leaning against the doorframe with his arms still crossed.

"No, Anakin," I began with an exasperated sigh, "I just...don't you have Jedi business to attend to or something?"

"I don't give a shit about any of that." He replied with a scoff.

This sparked a flame of unease in my gut. I was back, safe in my room and I didn't intent to put myself in harm's way. Now Anakin needed to do his part to help the council protect the temple. I wouldn't selfishly stand in the way of allowing him to do what he does best.

"You have to go help them." I pleaded, "They need you."

"You demanded we come back here." He said, pointing an accusatory finger at me. "Now you have to deal with the consequences."