deercountry | better to burn out than to fade away ☼ may catch-all

Anakin's smile becomes softer, a touch bashful. He's not used to being called good company.

"I think so too."

He dusts off the last crumbs of his snack and resists the urge to dig into his bag for a new one.

"How have you been?"

Aside from Anakin Skywalker apparently not telling her about her grandson.

There's a light smile, as it is akin to what Padmé has been doing herself, carrying around a bag of treats to munch on. She's learned that it is pretty indicative of what a blood type may be. "I suppose as well as one can be? It's a different pace, which is both good and bad, although I do miss the bustle of the Senate at times. You? Aside from the shared munchies..."

He gives her a slight smile. The fact that a swath of the population inexplicably has the munchies is unusual, but hardly the worst outcome. Especially considering what others are struggling with.

"I'm okay. I'm used to being busy and traveling all over, so it's been a lot to adapt to."

On top of everything going on with the Skywalker family.

"Any particular place, or just all over?" Her own line of work had had her more often between Naboo and Coruscant, but it didn't mean that she had never gone to other planets as well. In her youth, with her relief work, and even to different planets during the war. She doesn't really have that wanderlust attitude though. The stars are pretty, but they don't call out to her as an unsolved mystery.

"All over, though I spend most of my time going between Coruscant and the Outer Rim lately."

Or he did, before the Trench. He's not sure if he'll ever be able to travel the stars again. Anakin tries not to think about it too much.

"What about you?"

"Coruscant mainly, aside from Naboo, although I don't get home as often as I like." There never seems to be enough time, even before the war had broken out. "But I've visited other planets. Alderaan. Tatooine. Geonosis. Ilum, which is all but the opposite."

Giving a small shudder. Padmé is not a fan of the extremes - heat or cold. "Mainly core or mid rim, but some outer rim planets now and then."

Anakin blinks, a bit surprised.

"You've been to Ilum? What would take you there?"

It's mostly ice and kyber crystals, after all.

“Master Yoda, actually.” Not exactly a spot where Padmé would go to sightsee, but that wasn’t why they had gone there anyway. It had been an adventure, to say the least. “He talked me into detouring there as he sensed trouble.”

Of all of the possible answers, that's not one he expected. He forgets that she would've been close to the Jedi just by virtue of being a senator.

"I take it there was actually trouble?"

From what his uncle said about Yoda, he rarely erred.

Yet it wasn't every Senator that had such knowledge. Even aside from the Jedi coming to Naboo and aiding, Padmé did have a closer relationship than most. Anakin had been a big part of it, answering her questions and explaining things to her.

"Of course. It was Master Yoda saying it. There was an attack on the planet."

Anakin frowns, confused.

"There's nothing but ice and kyber there. I wonder what they'd be attacking."

Unless they wanted to destroy the kyber so the Jedi could no longer use it. Still, it seems like a waste of effort.

Padmé pauses for a moment, wonders what the galaxy looks like in the future. Will Naboo change a lot? It is hard to imagine that it would remain exactly the same, but what will those years do to it? Make it better, make it worse? "The temple and the crystals housed within, from my understanding."

"And with the war going on, the Jedi probably couldn't spare many people to defend it."

Anakin shakes off his gloomy thoughts of war and Jedi and tries instead to focus on the warmth of the sun and his grandmother's presence.

"Since Ilum is still standing, I assume he was able to stop it."

“There was never enough people, or enough time.” It went beyond the Jedi, of course. Most suffered for the war and Padmé knew that there would be few winners. Only those that profited from it. “He was. Perhaps more easily without my attempt to help… But they did not obtain what they wanted.”

Anakin's eyes soften. He knows war, but he doesn't want to tell her. He doesn't want to tell anyone. They can't stop it, and they deserve to believe that the future could be better.

"You might've helped more than you know."

"One can only hope." That small shrug of her shoulders. Sometimes that hope is all that one does have. A hope for a better future. She will continue as she always has, aiming for the best interest of the people of the Republic... soon to be Empire.

He gives her a soft smile. "Hope is pretty powerful."

He looks away for a moment, seeming to admire the flowers. In reality, he's trying to find his center and prepare himself. He has to say something eventually. But it always sets his nerves on edge when he does. It's not like he can do anything if she doesn't believe him or, worse, doesn't like him.

"It is. Hope is that small beacon of light in what you might otherwise see as just darkness." It has been something that has driven her throughout the years. She has may hopes, desires and dreams. Probably a bit too many, but so long as she keeps moving forward, she will work on them day by day.

"My mom once called me her hope. I wonder if it's like that for all parents."

Is he seguing into talking about family? Maybe.

"I would think so..." Not that she knows from personal experience having lived through it, but it is just that. "I think you want to leave the world a better place, so that your children can flourish and grow, and do the same for their children and so forth."

Anakin nods, but he thinks of Ben. He's just a little baby now, and Anakin hopes the war will end before he grows up too much. Let him have a peaceful childhood.

It takes a moment for Anakin to reply, but he's set on clearing things up. Hopefully more elegantly than before.

"I... didn't get a chance to apologize for how I acted at the meeting. I'm sure u-- Luke didn't want you to find out that way."

How Luke wanted her to find out is the question, but Anakin took that choice from him.

Her face turns, a slightly amused hint of an expression in her eyes. She does have the grace to keep it clear from her face. It had been unexpected, to say the least. Anakin had spoken of their child, but Padmé hadn't any clue that he had been here. "No, I doubt he did, but I doubt there was any simple way to explain it."

She does genuinely mean that. She didn't know of Luke's existence. She hadn't been pregnant.

Anakin still looks sheepish. It wasn't his finest moment.

"But there was probably a more elegant way." He pauses.

Well. Maybe not.

"Did he, um, mention his sister?"

That right there is part of it. He does look like he regrets the manner in which he let it slip. Padmé does understand the heat of the moment and how at times things may be said or done in a way that someone might not otherwise attend to it.

"Probably." Less blurting out unexpectedly and more sitting one down to talk about it. Of course her husband could have mentioned something... But Anakin has been off. She adds, supplying, "Leia."

He nods, visibly steeling himself.

"She's my mom."

Anakin knows it's silly to worry about how she'll feel about this. It's a fact, something he can't avoid and something she should know. To keep this from her makes him feel like a liar.

better to burn out than to fade away ☼ may catch-all

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