Living a Lie

Chapter 6

WRITERS: @TheUnitedFandomOf1 @Amithisia  

EDITOR: 

"Do you know what day it is?" It was a simple question. Seemed simple.

But Anakin knew his voice wasn't doing a good enough job of making it sound simple—too rough, the words half caught in his throat. He was horrible at hiding his feelings, even under the best of circumstances, and was more aware of it then people thought.

Not that it would ever work with Padmé. She was the love of his life and knew him far too well to be fooled by anything he attempted to fake. Knew that something was wrong even before she'd arrived—her Force presence was panicked and breath labored from the rush.

The question made her pause, startled perhaps. He waited a second, two, but the silence remained for far too long.

Too long for him at least. He, who had been waiting all day.

"It's our anniversary," Anakin stated, answering his own question as he sat up. He didn't look at her, couldn't bear to.

Her Force presence told him everything anyways, whether he liked it or not. Her feelings were flooding the room, heightened by the dulling panic that had led her here, and it was impossible for him to ignore them. They let him picture her face in his mind's eye. Her expression. Her chocolate eyes that could tell him everything and nothing all at once while drowning him in their depths.

First there was surprise. Padmé prided herself on her memory, always remembered her friend's lifedays and was always sure to send them a present at the proper time to ensure it arrived on said day even if they were halfway across the galaxy—imagine Anakin's surprise when he'd gotten one on the front lines in the form of a packaged meal after long learning to never expect gifts on any day of the year to the point he hadn't even remembered his own lifeday until Obi-Wan mentioned it, not that Anakin's old master would have remembered either, were it not for the surprise gift. She remembered the dozens of charity events on Naboo, always ensuring to donate a good chunk of her earnings to help the refugees and poor that spanned across the galaxy even when she was trapped fighting for them in the Senate. There was one charity in particular that was based on helping free slaves who were outside the Republic's domain she was quite partial to. For the moment, Anakin ignored the reason why she was partial to it.

But for her to forget a day as important as this one? Forget a day she had cleared her schedule for months in advance to ensure she had it off?

It was unlike her. Anakin had let it slide; everyone makes mistakes, forgets things—Padmé may be the one yelling at him for the same mistake in a few years, though he found it unlikely. To be fair, he hadn't even known if he'd even be on Coruscant for their anniversary until last week—officially of course. Obi-Wan could yell at Anakin all he wanted for disappearing from the ship for three days, two provided for travel and one for the actual anniversary. Anakin had thought that Padmé would know it'd be a given. That he wouldn't miss an entire day beside her for the world.

But perhaps when she made the meeting she had momentarily forgotten what day it was. Perhaps she didn't have a calendar to check. Perhaps she had thought he'd been thrown into another battle and couldn't get away. Besides, Anakin had managed to wiggle his way into an entire month of leave. As special as their anniversary was, it could be made up. They had the time. Besides, he had the perfect way to surprise her, and that would have involved Anakin attempting to keep her away from him and the kitchen for half the day.

And yet a meeting that was supposed to not take more than a handful of hours took the entire day.

Anakin would be lying if he said he wasn't mad.