The Archer

Chapter Eight: 21 104 Parsec

"Would you mind a short layover?"

Anakin and I were in the middle of our second so-called "lesson", and the city of Coruscant was already laying in almost complete darkness. At this point I had already managed to successfully lift off the ship, merge into traffic and put us on the road towards the center of the city. Everything was going rather smooth – expect for me taking a total of 4 attempts to finally get the engine going, making me almost lose all courage and quit right at the beginning.

I glanced over at Anakin who appeared to be bit absent-minded while reading through messages on his Comlink.

"No, not at all. Where to?"

"The Chancellor's office...  he wanted to see me," Anakin answered, his voice sounding a little too deliberately casual. 

"Very funny. Now, what's the real destination?"

"I'm not being funny. It's the Chancellor. He's been inviting me over for some days now... he can be pretty insistent..."

"Just so we're on the same page – we're talking about the Chancellor as in, the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Head of the Republic."

I knew that as a high-ranking Jedi and general, Anakin had connections to political figures regular people like me would never even come close to. What I didn't expect was that this apparently included casual invitations on a thursday-afternoon. It just seemed a little too... personal.

Anakin looked at me with a mild smile, seemingly amused by my disbelief.

"I understand it's unusual. The Chancellor and I, we're..." He paused, looking for the right words for a moment, "... close. I've known him since I joined the Order as a young boy."

That honestly came out of the blue for me. Looking back I knew there there had been a few occations were Anakin and the Chancellor were seen on HoloNet news together. But nothing that suggested a personal relationship as close as the one Anakin was describing.

If anything, I would have guessed I might meet Obi-Wan, who was obviously his closest friend. Then again I was almost certain he made sure not to tell him anything about our flying lessons. Sharing it with Chancellor Palpatine seemed to be no issue though. And I wonder why.

I snapped back to reality and gave Anakin a reassuring, "no-problem-at-all"-smile. "Okay, so let's better not keep the Chancellor himself waiting. Just give me the directions."

While we we're flying I took a moment to look down on myself and reflect on my outfit choices for today. Knewing I was meeting Anakin I'd be lying if I said I didn't put some thought into what I was wearing –but it still wasn't giving "I'm seeing the chief of state today".

"If you'd told me about this earlier, I would have put on something more presentable," I mumbled.

"You worry too much about little things, (y/n). Besides..." He turned his head towards me and a few strands of his hair fell into his face. "... you're alright. Trust me. You look more than presentable." He quickly looked away after that, his gaze drifting over the cityskape.

A few minutes later we were already approaching the landing deck on the top floor of the building, and after a somewhat questionable, noticeably shaky landing maneuver on my part we eventually made it down. Before I had the chance to climb out of my seat Anakin was already at my side of the speeder, opening the door for me to jump out.

And just like that I was suddenly standing only a few steps away from the Chancellor who had apparently been waiting for our arrival. I had seen this man on screen countless times - and I was surprised to see how normal he actually looked in real life. And friendly.