Secretly Normal

Phrasing

    
(Note: So I'm not sure how long this has been sitting in my drafts. I'm not particularly pleased with it, but I do owe you all some updates so here's an obnoxiously short thing I wrote circa last year.)
Anakin always believed in saying what needed to be said. Occasionally that ended in disapproval from his superiors, but he'd never begun to quiet or think twice before he remarked on certain things. Much as his master had tried, Anakin was a man of absolutes. Everything was good or bad, dull or brilliant, tactful or foolish. Because of this, he had a tendency to come off as rude sometimes.

     "Padmé, am I ever rude?"

The senator almost choked on her caf. "What do you mean by that, Anakin?"

      "Ahsoka says I'm too rude, that I talk too much, and I say what's on my mind too much of the time. And yes, I had a good talk with her about that because in my opinion she was the one being too forward with her words but,"

Padmé waited.

     "I don't know whether or not she meant I was offensive. She said there was a difference between being honest and rude. Of course there's a big difference. I'm not stupid."

For a moment she stared into her drink, contemplating how to approach the rather delicate topic. The brief silence was too long for Anakin, however, and she heard him mutter something inaudible.
"What?" She questioned in confusion.
      "You think so too."
     "Me too?"
     "You agree with her."
     "I didn't say anything."
     "Exactly. You're supposed to be on my side."
     "Anakin, please don't overreact."
     "This isn't overreacting!" He stated. She noticed his pitch raised slightly. Unconvinced, she rose her brows.
     "I admit," she started as gently as she could. "That you have a tendency not to think before you speak and to act first before anything else. Sometimes that can cause...disturbances because-"
     "-Because I am a Jedi." He interrupted, sighing heavily. Beginning to walk about the room, he continued, motioning with his arms as he did as if he was quoting someone.  "Jedi are representatives and guardians of peace. There is nothing worse than a Jedi who is quick to speak, lacks self-control, and causes chaos rather than order. I get it. I'm not twelve."
Once again, she gave a face that only expressed her tiredness and want of the conversation to change. "Ani, I don't think you're taking this the right way."
     "Not taking this the right way!?" Stunned, he swirled around to face her. Mentally, his wife groaned while he began to raise his voice. "I don't understand why everyone seems to think there's something wrong with me! I've never said anything offensive to you and I've never harassed anyone. I don't know what to-"
      "Anakin," She cut off, too mentally drained for the day to deal with him flying off the handle. At the same time, she wanted to help him, but she was far past handling him delicately. Besides, it was the middle of the week and towards the end of the day. In her mind she deserved credit for trying.
     "I think she means you tend to let your emotions guide your voice. That's all. To me that's natural. If we didn't let our emotions guide our daily lives I'm not sure how we'd get anything done. But obviously Jedi are different, so I can't really speak much advice. I think you're fine. Maybe you get angry sometimes, but that's natural too. If Ahsoka, as a fellow Jedi, is noticing things then maybe you need to reconsider how you're acting around people who have different expectations of you."

     Anakin was silent and had moved to watching the speeders fly past the tall windows. That was her Senator-Diplomat voice and he hated when she used it on him. It cut straight to the point, without flourish or sway. She said what was absolutely necessary in the most honest way possible without making him feel insubordinate. He loved her for that, but what he hated about those moments was that she was always right. How successful would he have been in getting his point across calmly and collected, without starting another fight? A grumble bubbled in his throat at the fact that she'd actually managed to silence him and make him think.

     A deep breath in, he turned to her and opened his mouth to speak, but a soft beeping indicator went off on his wrist at the notice of a new message. "That Padawan of mine...doesn't she have anything better to do?" He mumbled under his breath while his wife watched with some amount of anticipation from the couch. Rather than answering, he left it and returned to his wife's side.
     "I should get going."
She visibly hesitated before saying, "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes, why?"
Instead of responding immediately she took a sip of her tea and turned her attention to the holoscreen that was showing some kind of advertisement for indoor house cleaner droids.
"Anakin, I don't think you've ever been outright rude without justification. And what matters to me is that it got to you, that you don't want to come off that way. If you said something that offended her personally, then that's between you and what you do afterwards is up to you alone."
This time her voice was softer, with just enough strain to let him know that the conversation would not continue afterwards. Gently he kissed the top of her head in gratitude before wishing her a goodbye along with a promise to be back later.

(End note: I'm greatly amazed by all you new followers. So sorry to you guys. How the heck did you end up in this mess? Please comment if you'd like to see more like this, maybe throw in a few prompts. Thank you all very much.)