On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter CXLVIII

Luna woke up, jerking slightly in surprise at her surroundings, still not used to her new quarters though she'd been living in the room for weeks. It'd been awhile since she last had a bedroom to herself after all. To be honest, she missed the comfort of other presences. Luna may not have liked the girls she lived with all that much, but she'd never been unhappy with the fact they all lived in the same room, as messy as it could be. And all the arguments that came with the small space. And the constant fighting over mirrors and the bathroom and music and noise and outlets. And the constant need to guard her possessions.

Bottom line, it wasn't all bad. Especially when the nightmares came. It was easier to fall asleep knowing there were other people around, even if they didn't care about you.

The teen girl slipped out of the comfort of the bed and made her way out into the main part of the apartment.

Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised to find Anakin already up and standing on the terrace. It was almost funny really, how often the two of them seemed to have midnight rendezvous. Like it was planned.

"Your sleep schedule is starting to really worry me, Luna," the Jedi Knight commented without looking at her, a small smile in his voice, clearly glad for her company despite the words in the hopes she would distract him from his own nightmares.

"You can worry about mine after we fix yours," the teen countered as she came to stand by him at the railing. He chuckled, wrapping an arm around her and drawing the girl to his side. It was a by now familiar motion, but still had the tendency to catch Luna off guard for the first moment or two. She wasn't used to so much human contact, though Anakin's tendencies to initiate it in one form or another was starting to warm her to the idea. Anyway, it didn't really bother the girl, and she couldn't come up with a reason not to go along with it, especially with knowing where the future may lead.

Her eyes went to the stars as they often did during these short midnight rendezvouses, though the alienness only reminded her of the terror she'd only just woken from. Luna shivered, more from the memory of the dream rather than the cool night air. The Jedi beside her glanced down in concern.

Best not to think of that now, she told herself.

"Which of us is the adult?" he asked.

"Obi-Wan could probably come up with quite an argument on that subject."

"You really think so?"

"I think it better I don't answer that question, Anakin."

"Well, considering the time, I, the adult, say you need to go back to sleep sooner rather than later and get inside before you freeze. Come on."

"But I don't want to," Luna complained, even as he began to lead her back inside. She didn't bother to truly fight though, knowing that she could always just get in bed and read. That's what the girl always did, given she hadn't actually complained about being put back to bed before—no reason to considering the decision also meant Anakin had hopefully calmed down enough to sleep as well, but tonight it just slipped out. Usually they stayed in each other's company a lot longer before he sent her back to bed, which allowed Luna the benefit of getting over the dream enough to focus on other things—namely future schemes of how to out play Palpatine.

"I'll sit with you if that'll make you feel better," the Jedi offered. The teen all but stopped in her tracks, wondering if she was hearing things.

"....I wouldn't want to trouble you," Luna began after she had recovered from the initial internal What in the Name of the Ever Loving Force meltdown.