Sᴏᴜʟᴍᴀᴛᴇs [ᴇɴɢʟɪsʜ]

[norm] Come Back

Anakin stared at the steps where Ahsoka had disappeared. Every part of him was screaming to run after her and take her back, but his body didn't move an inch.

And he hated himself for that the following years. Every time he thought about anything, it somehow was connected to her. To Ahsoka, his former apprentice, his friend. It broke his heart to lose her, not to know what happened to her or if she was even still alive.

Well of course she was. It was Ahsoka.

No matter how hard it seemed, she'd always try to make it, and most times this strategy worked out pretty well. Most times, not every time, so there were also times where she got hit or something. She didn't like it. Resting, treating herself with care, no risky hunts after getting helpless people out of difficult situations.

But when her wounds had healed, she was fine with it. And she could go back to work. Her own definition of it. So her life was fine, complete. Nearly.

There was one big hole in her heart that was ripped out when she left her old life. When she left the Jedi. Left her friends. Left him.

Drowned in her thoughts Ahsoka taped with her fingers on the wet table. It was raining, everyone sat inside, but she wanted to be alone. She liked the cold rain on her skin and the inhuman silence.

The water streamed over her Lekku and completed its way on her thigh, where it went on over her legs to the ground. And still she was thinking. The picture of Anakin clear in her mind. Brown, tousled fluffy hair, bright blue eyes filled with love and care, straight nose and perfect lips.

He wasn't just like a master to her, he was more. Much more. But not really brother like, no father and no lover. Just... Something stronger than that. Something she couldn't describe, she didn't even really know, what exactly she was feeling for him. It was just too much.

Too much for him as well. He couldn't precisely say she was his little sis. But he would come near it. Some mix of that, their master padawan bond and maby a bit more love. Or trust. Or both, less he didn't know how to describe.

The one thing he could say: he wanted her back. He'd get every price to pay to bring her back to him. To retrieve his togruta girl. His Ahsoka.

The rain crashed against the window and caused a continuous patter. Anakin sat in his shady room, tired and doleful. He was cheerless on his missions with anyone else, except Obi-Wan, who could make it a bit more comfortable for his younger friend. And every time he couldn't see Padmé afterwards it was another lonely evening in his quarters.

Without her joking and messing around with him.

And again it was time for one of those days. He just hoped for his nightmares to disappear. Dreaming of anyone near him dying. Mostly Padmé. But recently more and more often Ahsoka. It was just as real as in those he had of his mother. After whose he found her dead because of the Tusken Raiders.

Ahsoka wasn't kidnapped by Tusken Raiders in his dreams, no. She wasn't even on Tatooin. It happened right here on Coruscant. In the temple or outside. Some of Anakins visions were about the past - a different way for the trial to end, for him to be too late so her dead was his own fault - so he knew they luckily couldn't come true. But he saw them as an additive warning.

His togruta was in danger.

And he had to do something about it. He needed to find her. Before his nightmares could take over actions.

⭑✶⭑

It wasn't the first day she permanently thought about him.

It was like every second he has been in her mind since she left the order years ago. Sometimes, or more like constantly she questioned her choise. Has it been right to go? Or should she have stayed, even if she didn't feel like staying one minute longer with the ones that abandoned her.

No, she couldn't stay with this chaos still rumbling through her head. She had to sort this out on her own. To recover from this betrayal she felt during the trial and after she saw it was her best friend setting her up.

Later she realized it would have been easier with Anakin around. But still, without the council. Though she couldn't have asked him to give up his whole life just for her.
Well, actually he wouldn't have to hide his marriage with Padmé anymore. But he would have lost his other Friends like Rex, Obi-Wan...

She hadn't been able to demand that from him. And she blamed herself for only thinking of this possibility.

It had stopped raining.

Ahsoka looked up to the darkblue sky dazed by some clouds. The stars had trouble to come through this ceiling of smoke, only some of them managed it to shine bright enough.

She felt like one of the hidden ones.

A shot in the silence attracted her attention. She heard scrambling a few alleys away. Then a familiar sound of a weapon of people she hoped she never had to meet again.

She stood up. The bright shine of the lightsaber radiated from his blade and dipped the walls in a mystical blue.

Slowly Ahsoka approached, unbelieving what she now sensed right in front of her. Her eyes widened as she could surely say it was him. Him!

"Anakin?" she breathed.

The man froze at the moment she called his name, even if it was so quiet it should have been missed.

Anakin couldn't move. It was her. It was actually her saying his name! All of a sudden he turned around, facing the Togruta he thought he lost. Lost years ago, suffering from that loss; he didn't dare to hope to see her again.

"Ahsoka," his voice was even quieter than hers. His eyes sparkled from upcoming tears he wasn't able to hold back anymore. And then he found himself in her embrace, letting all his emotions flowing through his body, holding his Snips in his arms again.

It was hard to breath for Ahsoka under the tears running down her face, laughing and crying at the same time. The storm inside her broke free, but so silence noone a bit farer away could hear it. Just Anakin shared her feelings. She sobbed heavily and cuddled up to her friend who held her stronger. "I've missed you," she whispered in his tunic.

"I've missed you too, Snips," he replied.

Gently his hand stroke over her back, calming her down as well as himself, realizing she was really there. She really was back, back in his arms, back under his shelter. He didn't want to let her go ever again.

After a while they detached themselves from each other. Anakin looked her over.

"You've grown up," he smiled.

She smiled back. "Well, couldn't always stay sixteen"

Her words remembered him, hurt him, although she didn't mean to hurt him. She would never. The day she left, the day he last saw her, he thought. And his smile disappeared in thoughts of letting her go. He didn't even try to hold her back!

Anger rose in him, that Ahsoka sensed immediately. A cold, soft hand touched his fist. Anakin looked up. She didn't have to speak, her eyes told him everything he needed to know. And it tempered his rage.

They just stood there together like the entire remaining night. But it was fine, even if it was raining again. Cause they found each other again, they reunited, they could complete their heart with the lost peace returned to them.

After this last meeting she never came back. She left Coruscant completely to leave her old life behind. Not knowing what teribble things would happen short after her choise.

Anakin had sworn that day not to lose her ever again, and Ahsoka and him kept their contact. Anakin wouldn't stand the will of his destiny, but he had a better time before becoming Darth Vader. He had at least a few months with his former padawan again.

They still were connected through the force when the empire rose, but their bond was foggy and nearly torn. There wasn't enough love left to repair it. Especially because of Vader.

But the one thing they both had in mind, the one thing that probably hold their bond together, were the memories they shared together.

And these memories could never be taken from both of them.