A Cold Start - Anakin x Reader

to care or not to care

My heart still beating fast and adrenaline still rushing through my blood, I turned to my knight in not so shining armor who was now approaching me.

"Are you alright? Please, tell me you're fine!"

The man took off the hood that had conceiled his face until now and my jaw dropped.

Anakin?!

"You?", I spoke out my thought
in disbelief.

"Yeah. But you haven't answered my question, Y/N. Are you alright?", he put a hand on my shoulder and looked down at me. Urgency was in his voice and eyes and I don't think I have ever seen him this concerned.

"I suppose I am, but why-"

"Not here.", Anakin interrupted me. "We should get out of here before anyone notices anything."
He picked up my cloak that was still lying on the sofa and held it out in front of me for me to put it on. I hesitated for a second but then gave in and put my arms through the sleeves.

"And don't forget this." Anakin reached for the hood of my cloak and carefully pulled it over my head. I looked up into his face like I had seen a ghost.
"Come on now." He nodded his head towards the exit and then guided me out of the club with his hand protectively on my back.

"Alright... No need for this anymore.", I said, removing his arm from around my waist once we were outside in the bright neon light. It felt so weird. All of this, and I needed some space.
Anakin raised an eyebrow at me but made no further attempts to touch me as he continued to walk me through a couple more streets until we came to an alley where a little ship was parked. I had seen it before. Anakin and I had used it for a mission here on Coruscant once.

"So this is how you followed me then.", I stated.

"Uhuh."

Anakin helped me climb up into the passenger seat and he himself got into the pilot's seat next to it. Then he closed the roof.

"Now, are you gonna tell me just what is going on!?", I turned toward him. There were no more excuses for him not to answer me as we were safe and isolated inside this ship.

Anakin shrugged. "Well. I was just curious where you were going when I saw you coming out of your room, wearing that cloak. And so I followed you."

"You were curious? And why were you in our hallway anyways? At half past eight, I mean. Part of my equation was for you to be doing your evening work out around that time."

"Usually, yes. But tonight I wanted to talk to you. About what happened during our mission this morning.", he quickly looked away when he noticed my irritated expression.

"If that's the case, I'm very glad I left my room in time to avoid that talk and another lecture of you.", I smiled bitterly.
It was only this morning that Anakin had called me stupid and egoistic and I most definitely didn't need to discuss that with him any further.

"No. It's not like that, Y/N." He looked me into the eyes but I just couldn't read his expression.

"What is it like then, Anakin? Would you mind elaborating?", I sassed. I would and could hardly ever talk to anyone in that manner, unless it was Anakin. And it was also he who, in a way, taught me to be so... ruthless?

"I-", he cleared his throat, "you know, I thought about how the mission played out, how our conversation after played out, specifically and... it wasn't ideal. How I reacted wasn't ideal."
He looked outside with a blank stare, his hands firmly gripping the control sticks in front of him and I could see that his knuckles were starting to bruise from how hard he had hit the guy.