Ornamenti: Part 9
Part 9: In which there are two very cute Padawans in the kitchen and Artoo invades the OOC rather hilariously.

What they had gotten up to amounted to a great deal of controlled flour dusting and some very warm buttery smells. Naboo handmaidens tended to keep a lot of fresh supplies in their space cruiser kitchen.
At the moment of Anakin's arrival, Padme was showing Rin how to dribble icing across some form of flaky pastry in interesting patterns.

For a moment Anakin only stood the doorway and watched them, watched /her/, and marveled, silently, at the sudden unclenching of his heart. Even simple movements made her beautiful, even ordinary mundane things like cooking or smiling or even just breathing.
He allowed the un-Jedi-like thought, for now, because it felt right, because it made breathing somehow easier, to think that perhaps, beholding such a thing, and embracing it, could not be wrong.
Rin, for his part, seemed to be having a grand time- he'd warmed to the concept quickly, and just seemed grateful for human contact again.

"Mmm, very good, Rin!" Padme smiled and dusted her one good hand, white with flour up to the elbow, against the apron she wore. "I think you can make these for Master Huang Ky later; you've got a real talent. Now let's see if we can make something else..." She turned and reached for a higher cabinet, standing on tiptoe to touch the handle.

Anakin moved forward at last, and reached up to open the cabinet, using his superior height to an advantage. "What are we looking for?" he asked, and glanced down at her with a small grin.

Padme grinned to see him and stepped back out of the way. "Oh, you're up. We're looking for a small green container."

He found it easily enough and handed it down to Rin, who beamed at him in gratitude. "I've been up for a while," he told Padme, stepping back out of the way again. "We took out my linker."

That simple sentence stirred a lot of emotions in Padme, the most notable one being relief. Overpowering relief that Anakin was no longer so deeply endangered. Other emotions carried wariness wrapped with thoughts of Sabe and the other strangely absent handmaidens.
But mostly Padme was relieved, and it showed.
"I'm glad." But enough about linkers, a little headtoss seemed to say. Let's make something to eat instead. "Any favorites you'd like to request, Ani?" She grinned down at the shy Padawan at her side. "We've already taken care of Rin's."

Rin grinned back in reply. "Lady Padme makes very nice pastry," he said, gesturing to the remaining food on the countertop. Anakin glanced at Padme, his own smile warm. "Anything you'd like is fine," he said, easily. "I'm not really picky, as long as it's not alive and squirming."

Padme made a face. "Alive and squirming?"

"Do you know what they eat on Kyriara?" he replied peacefully. "Or on Karkar- the Karkarians are carnivores, they don't even cook their meat."

The Ambassador shuddered a little and removed the lid from the container Anakin had so helpfully brought down from the cabinet. "I'm partial to a good salad myself..." And the greens inside were thick and leafy, bright as the day they'd been picked. There were a few other ingredients to gather and toss together before it was ready, but otherwise it was a quickly prepared meal.
And quick was good.
She continued the conversation while picking up and tossing in everything the dish would need: an appetizing array of vegetables in many colors. "That time on Karkar must have been interesting; the Karkarian clans are hostile to the Republic, aren't they?" She gave in to temptation and took a bite of a baby carrot.

"All except the Sharra clan," Anakin agreed, nodding- Rin was also nodding, looking up at Padme. "Master Healer Gigari is Sharra," said the younger Padawan, "And he's very nice."
"Mm," said Anakin, retrieving more dishes from under the counter. "And I suppose you could say our time on Karkar was interesting... The Guwarrin clan took me hostage for three days. I was about Rin's age."
The words brought memory, but it was vague- a haze of pain and fear so immense that he'd nearly strangled his own Master upon being rescued, incapable of recognizing him right away.

Padme wiped an errant blob of icing off Rin's face; somehow during application to the pastries it had managed to reach his upper cheek. She frowned during the motherly gesture, caught unsteady by Anakin's admission of pain. He may have only worded it as a simple kidnapping, but a hostage Jedi Padawan upon a Republic-hostile planet like Karkar would not have been treated well.
The knowledge made her angry, upset, and protective.
"At least it was only three days. Obi-Wan found you quickly."
She wished there was a way the Jedi could teach others how to find missing children as deftly as they could sense and find their Padawans.

Anakin only shrugged, as though dismissing some past ugliness; he said, simply, "I don't remember much about it. It seemed a lot longer at the time. They tortured me. I didn't even really recognize Obi-Wan when he came for me. I tried to kill him."
And he left it at that. Rin's only response to the words was a grimace, mild, as though such things were not uncommon. Anakin began to set out the dishes.

Padme did not say anything in reply, only spooned out the mix of greenery into equal portions on the plates, intensely grateful that these two sweet Padawans were safe now.
If only for now.
"I don't suppose there's a way for the Republic to discourage such treatment of Jedi Padawans." From her tone, Padme had a low opinion of what the Republic could or could not do in a genuinely useful capacity.

"The enemies of the Republic view the Jedi as representations of what they hate," Anakin said. He sounded as though he were reciting something he'd been told more than once. "Jedi own nothing, and value nothing that belongs to them, save their Padawans." He put a hand on Rin's shoulder and squeezed, gently.
"Anybody who's an enemy of the Jedi knows that the quickest way to make a Master do what you want is to threaten his Padawan."

"Anybody who's an enemy of the Jedi should also know that the Jedi have many friends who will not tolerate that threat."
The angry, determined politician faded after a moment, and Padme shook her head as if swatting away unneccessary thoughts. "...Ready to eat?"

Anakin only smiled in response. "I've been ready," he said, letting the matter drop where Padme wanted it to drop. He briefly considered reaching for Obi-Wan, but thought better of it at the last moment, not particularly wanting to stir up his own frustration again.

She grinned up at Anakin, inwardly wondering exactly when during the eight years since their first meeting on Tatooine he had managed to grow so tall. Recalling the first time she'd met the boy also brought forth images of his mother.
...If we're near Mos Espa, we could check by the scrapyard.
Padme had no idea if Anakin had found time between missions, woundings, and torture sessions to return to his home planet to see his mother, but the chance afforded now by their predicament almost seemed fated. And if Padme was truly honest, she looked forward to seeing Shmi Skywalker again herself. "Perfect."

(Artoo goes, "BEEPBEEPBIPPITYWARUMPHEEP.")
Yoinomyoujou: (*LOL* Artoo, is that the Virgin Alarm?)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: No, that is me expressing my opinion of PADAWAN AND QUEEN KIDNAPPERS.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: Although the Virgin Alarm is a good joke. I'm not sure which one to ring it for.)
Yoinomyoujou: (*L* Are they both virgins, then?)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: *droidian RAE* ...I have witnessed no evidence to the contrary.)
Yoinomyoujou: (HA. Well he's been saving himself for /her/ since he was nine, honestly...)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: Though Mistress Sabe did come quite close to- That was very thoughtful of him.)
Yoinomyoujou: (OHO DID SHE ACTUALLY GET THAT CLOSE? XD That pleases me, and does not surprise me in the least.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: She did, and I won't tell you any more. :P )

Anakin glanced at her as the throught crossed her mind, and there was a strange light behind his eyes.
"You're thinking of her too," he breathed, softly, his smile gentling into something almost radiant, expectant, hopeful. There was nothing quite like seeing a parent after a long separation. "I'd like to see her, if we can. I bet she'd like to see us."

Padme nearly giggled. "You're twice as tall now as you were then. Do you think she'll recognize you?"
It was only gentle teasing; she had no doubt Shmi Skywalker would immediately see past the grown exterior to the sweet little boy within.

"I hope so," Anakin said, happy in her shared delight, nearly giddy with the idea. "I hope she will, it's been so long..."

Padme chuckled a little bit and ate her salad. "And Threepio, too. He'll be happy to see you again."

Anakin just beamed, warmed by the idea of seeing his blood family again, and snagged one of the pastries from off the counter, not even wincing as the movement strained at a pulled muscle. "He might need repairs after so long," he said, delighted that she remembered his droid, remembered such a small thing about him. "We'll see."
Rin, however, had paused, glanced at Padme and Anakin, and then stepped out of the kitchen rather abruptly, heading for the exit ramp.

"I'm sure he will-" The moving child snatched Padme's attention immediately, eating utensil forgotten on the plate. "Rin? What is it?"
The dangers of Tatooine were many, especially for a small Padawan. She did not want another disappeared child added to the list.

Anakin was already moving after him, but Rin had engaged the lowered ramp already, was darting down it with a sincerely gleeful expression. "Hang on, wait!" Anakin called, but apparently to no avail.
And in the sand beyond the ramp, a small ship parked nearby, stood Hoth Colony Governor Yuria, short and sternfaced and eyeing Rin in a most speculative manner.

Padme stood at the opening, not sure what was happening... Until she remembered that Rin's Master, Huang Ky, was a talented shapeshifter.
Aha.
But plenty of other people could be shapeshifters as well, so she watched the reunion with careful eyes.

There seemed to be no doubt in the child's mind as to who this person could be; Anakin, too, had paused, blinking in surprise, and Rin simply threw himself at Yuria- or Huang Ky, as it had to be, for she was laughing now, and kneeling to hug him tightly in return, saying something fast and excited in an unknown language and touching his face as though she couldn't believe he was here and whole.
Anakin smiled to himself, and shifted at Padme's side, their shoulders brushing. "It's a nice feeling," He said, low enough for her ears alone, "When you know you're both alive and well and together again."

Padme smiled sadly then, welcoming the shift and touch. "I know the feeling."
All the pleasant reminiscing of before had worked a great deal towards burying her worry about the children who were still missing, but Rin's happy reunion with his Master made absences all the more apparent.

He remained like that, leaned against her, because it felt right, and he could feel her gratitude.
"We'll get them back," he said, quietly certain now. This was /his/ territory and he knew it well.
Below them Huang Ky had reverted to her natural form- still short, but with skin the pale blue-violet of dusk, wide, glowing red eyes that held no trace of white, and smooth bald head, devoid of hair. She looked up at them with Rin in her arms, the child beaming with joy.
"Hello again."

"Hello, Master Huang Ky." Padme bobbed her head respectfully.

"I apologize for my trickery," she said, and smiled thinly. "My thoughts were rather focused on other things, at the time."
"I understand," Anakin said, bowing- she was a Jedi Master, after all, and ranked above him. "I'm glad Rin was all right."

"He was very brave," Padme said, containing her pleasure as well as she could that young Rin wouldn't have to be that particular kind of brave again any time soon. Obi-Wan and Sabe had done something with the Hata, that was for certain. "Rin is good company."

"Thanks, Lady Padme," Rin said, embarassed but clearly pleased. Huang Ky's dark lips pulled back even further in that strangely human expression of pleasure.
"You've helped return what's most precious to me," she said, stroking Rin's hair like a mother reuinited with her beloved child. "I owe you a great debt, and so does my order."

Padme shook her head lightly. "Master Kenobi did the rescuing. I was merely a spectator."

The smile remained. "You looked after him when I could not," she said, and then glanced at Anakin, who bowed his head again, immediately humble. "If you'd tell your Master hello, but we can't stay- I'd like to take Rin home. Thank him for me."
"Yes, Master Huang Ky," Anakin said quietly, eyes still lowered. "I will."

Anakin's female compatriot smiled briefly at the young boy who'd been her companion through the whole haggard ordeal, glad that he was safe and headed home. She bowed deeply to them both, Jedi Master and Padawan.
"Safe journey."

Rin managed to free himself from his Master's embrace long enough to bow to them both, and when he straightened he beamed at Padme, giving her a little wave before Huang Ky took him by the hand and led him back to her ship.
Anakin straightened, watched them go with a small smile.

For her part, Padme beamed.

"Just us now, I guess," Anakin said quietly, as the ship lifted up out of the sand. "I don't know where Obi-Wan's gotten off to."

"Yes..." Padme followed the departing ship with her eyes as it disappeared into the vast ocean of stars above. "What happened?"
No sense pretending that either of them weren't uneasy. Anakin had been just as happy to simply prepare and eat dinner as she had.

"What do you mean?" Anakin, however, didn't seem to want to bring it up- whatever was making him tense as far as Obi-Wan was concerned, he wasn't inclined to be direct about it.

Padme halfway put her head on his shoulder, the long day catching up to her at last now that it was safe to relax. "I'm sure he was hungry, too."

To his credit Anakin didn't stiffen up, nor did he panic. He paused, for a moment, and then let an arm steal around her waist, carefully supporting.
"He'll eat later," he said, calm voice concealing the sudden fluttering of his heart. "I'll remind him."

She was calm now. Secure in her company. "Do you often have to remind him to eat?"

"Just sometimes, when he gets worried about something." A pause. "Or when the past catches up to him."

"Master Jinn." The name was a respectful statement, a title for a wise and sacrificing man.

"Yes," Anakin said, quietly, in a tone that spoke of pain very old, and not his own. "It's something that's never healed. I don't think it ever will."

Padme frowned, the soft material of her sling brushing against Anakin's arm very slightly. "..."
There wasn't much to be said to that.

And after a moment, the boy went on, "And it's never any easier to try to talk to him about it, either." It was strange, having someone else there to listen to him talk about Obi-Wan- for the most part, the only one there was Obi-Wan himself. His arm tightened just a little around her waist, and he looked at her. "...He thinks he's a failure."

Shock contorted her face for a second. "Why?!"

Anakin shrugged, looking unhappy. "Because he can't fix everyone everywhere at once, I guess. I don't know. I think he's great, but that doesn't seem to matter much."

"You matter a great deal to him, Anakin." Padme looked up at the Padawan, completely serious.

"I know," Anakin replied, just as serious, "But that doesn't mean I can make him happy."

"Do you have to make him happy?" Padme cocked her head wryly. "It seems he's passed on his desire for fixing people to you."

He blinked at her, brow furrowing, and finally said, "Say you had a friend who gave up everything for you. All he ever does is make sure you're safe, and well fed, and clothed, that you're sleeping right and that you're learning. He holds you when you're sick or afraid or wounded, and he's never once failed to pull you out of danger, even if it's your fault, even if it's a great risk to his own life. He's been patient, gentle, kind."
"Say he carries this sadness with him everywhere he goes, that eats at him. It's just a big hole in his heart, and it's only getting bigger."
Here he tapped a finger gently to the side of his head. "Now say, you can sense it. Whenever you're close to him, whenever he speaks, you can feel that hole, and you can feel it hurting him like it's in you, too. Wouldn't you be desperate to heal him, too?"

Padme slipped her own arm around Anakin's waist and squeezed comfortingly. "Yes."
She understood his situation exceptionally well.
Perhaps too well.

Anakin hesitated, turned towards her, and after a moment's pause, hugged her, as though he needed it just as much as she seemed to. He was tall, and warm, and there was a strange comfortable ease to being close to him, something familiar and supporting and easy to fall into. His cheek brushed her hair; he said, softly, "Thank you."

She hugged him back, grateful for the comfort, for the odd feeling of a younger someone's chin gentle against her forehead. "Yes. Thank you."

AraiYasha: (Artoo: Should I ring the Virgin Alarm?)
Yoinomyoujou: (YOU MIGHT WANT TO.

Anakin: *not going to try to kiss her, not going to, not not not sdfsdfgfh*)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: Anakin Skywalker, I wouldn't try what you're thinking if I were you.)
Yoinomyoujou: (Anakin: ....But... but....)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: It would ruin the moment.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: You do not want Mistress Padme to start thinking of you as more than a child; she will become uncomfortable around you.)
Yoinomyoujou: (Anakin: ...I do want her to. She doesn't have to be uncomfortable.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: *beepsigh* The fact remains that you are underage, Anakin Skywalker. A year or two later, perhaps, but not now.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: Mistress Padme would have a crisis of conscience.)
Yoinomyoujou: (Anakin: ....*so frustrated* I'm not a child, and I can't... I've felt this way for years, and now she's /here/- I might never see her again.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: *helpfully* Queen Jamillia has asked her to serve as Naboo's Senator on Coruscant.)
Yoinomyoujou: (Anakin: ...Really?)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: Past examples of Mistress Padme's behavior indicate she will likely accept the position.)
Yoinomyoujou: (Anakin: ...I have to wait.)
AraiYasha: (Artoo: *would be smiling, if he had a face to smile with* A year or two in the future, yes. The Senator would not be subject to that particular crisis of conscience.)
Yoinomyoujou: ((Anakin is like "BUT MY PENIS WANTS OUT NOW"))
AraiYasha: ((Artoo is like, "SHUT UP AND WAIT"))
AraiYasha: (("Do you really want her to flinch every time you walk through the door?!"))
Yoinomyoujou: ((He's like NO I WANT HER TO LIGHT UP A_A))
AraiYasha: ((THEN DON'T TRY TO KISS HER NOW))
AraiYasha: ((*LMFAO* Artoo gives Anakin dating advice.))
Yoinomyoujou: ((*LOL* Because he's such a casanova.))

He blinked at her, brow furrowing, and finally said, "Say you had a friend who gave up everything for you. All he ever does is make sure you're safe, and well fed, and clothed, that you're sleeping right and that you're learning. He holds you when you're sick or afraid or wounded, and he's never once failed to pull you out of danger, even if it's your fault, even if it's a great risk to his own life. He's been patient, gentle, kind."
"Say he carries this sadness with him everywhere he goes, that eats at him. It's just a big hole in his heart, and it's only getting bigger."
Here he tapped a finger gently to the side of his head. "Now say, you can sense it. Whenever you're close to him, whenever he speaks, you can feel that hole, and you can feel it hurting him like it's in you, too. Wouldn't you be desperate to heal him, too?"

Padme slipped her own arm around Anakin's waist and squeezed comfortingly. "Yes."
She understood his situation exceptionally well.
Perhaps too well.

Anakin hesitated, turned towards her, and after a moment's pause, hugged her, as though he needed it just as much as she seemed to. He was tall, and warm, and there was a strange comfortable ease to being close to him, something familiar and supporting and easy to fall into. His cheek brushed her hair; he said, softly, "Thank you."

She hugged him back, grateful for the comfort, for the odd feeling of a younger someone's chin gentle against her forehead. "Yes. Thank you."

His smile was tangible rather than visible, and he seemed perfectly content to simply hold her like this. It was easy, to let him hold her. Easy to listen to the gentle beat of his heart and how it had quickened, just a little. Easy to be soothed by the hand between her shoulderblades.
"I thanked you first," he murmured, with quiet humor.

Padme smiled at the joke of words. It was the kind of silly thing that only happened when people were comfortable together, and it wasn't really funny by any stretch of the imagination. It was just a thing to make her smile. "You know, you've barely touched your dinner."
Whatever he'd been doing all day, it was doubtful Anakin had been able to eat anything while his nerves were scrambled.

There was the sensation of his breath against her hair. "Muscles are still a little jittery," he replied, as though that were an excuse. It wasn't.

"Then maybe you should lie down again." She pulled back a little to examine him with concern. The salve hadn't done much for the red ring around his neck yet, and the space was beginning to bruise as well. Damn that Naraka.
Now she wondered precisely what Obi-Wan and Sabe had done to the Hata after she'd taken Rin and the equipment back to the ship... Sabe hadn't come back yet. Was she standing guard? How had they managed to keep a man like Naraka restrained? He'd wreak havoc if he thought he could catch both a Master and a Padawan- What were they thinking in leaving him alive? Obviously on his own ship, too, since Sabe and the Hata were markedly absent.
Tatooine must breed crazy ideas in Jedi Knights; even the great Master Qui-Gon Jinn had done some mind-boggling things in order to obtain a hyperdrive for the crippled Nubian cruiser under his protection.

He gave her a curious look, still gripping one of her upper arms lightly, and an expression of momentary confusion, then concentration, flooded across his face.
"You do that a lot," he said, with the slightest of wrinkles across his brow. "Quick thinking, subject jumping... it's difficult to follow." Reading her mind again, with an ease that seemed to come as naturally to him as breathing.

Padme blinked at him. "You're reading my mind?" She wondered vaguely if she should be impressed, angry, or just bewildered. After all, thoughts were private things.

There was that soft smile tucked into the corner of his mouth again, as though she'd said something he found amusing.
"It's like words flashing across a datapad, quickly," he said. "It's hard not to try to read it if it's right in front of your face."

Her eyebrows rose. "I'd always operated under the assumption that minds existed within our skulls, not in front of our faces."

"In the Force," he corrected. "You saw how Rin ran out of here without hearing a thing, didn't you? His Master spoke to him. Mind to mind. Obi-Wan and I do it all the time."

"I thought you did..." Padme looked out the door of the space cruiser into the star-filled sky. "But I didn't think you could do it so easily with people you don't know well."

"Only because you have strong thoughts. Because we're standing close, and... well, because you have strong Force presence."

She looked back at him then, inquiring and surprised. "I do not."
Children all over the Republic were tested at birth- and as far as she knew, nothing had changed since she'd been born.

Now he was genuinely smiling. "Most people do," he told her, matter-of-fact and instructing. "Nulls are rare- you probably weren't selected for training because you weren't strong enough, or your parents refused. That doesn't mean you don't stand out."

Padme grinned and shook her head, waving the idea away with another. "So if our minds exist in the Force, can you read anyone's?"

Anakin grinned back at her, and propped his hands on his hips. "If their shields aren't too strong."

"Oh really." She crossed her arms, still grinning. "Why do you look?"

"It's interesting to see what people are thinking. Sometimes it's useful for Jedi to know." His grin was faintly mischevious. "I like to know what you're thinking, especially."

Her face looked stern, but there was amusement hiding beneath it. "I don't know if I appreciate having my thoughts looked at, Anakin Skywalker."

Anakin tipped his head to one side, winsome, devilishly innocent, blue eyes sparkling with amusement of his own, and something more. "Do you want me to stop, Lady Amidala?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Get back inside and eat your dinner before I become upset with your cheek."

He winked at her, chuckling low and pleased, and sketched an entirely insincere bow in her direction.
As he mounted the ramp again, he felt, he realized, lightyears better than he had.

As Padme watched him practically skip inside, she marveled at the boy's resiliency. Kidnapped, choked, left for dead... And now he was gleeful as a puppy. She huffed and turned back to the stars and the empty dunes, speaking to those absent from her company.
Perhaps her thoughts could reach them.
Where are you? Are you all in one place? Or are you scattered across the sky?
Only the empty wind replied.