Star Wars: The Chosen One || An Anakin Skywalker Story [COMPLETED]

Thirty-One || Hiding... Again

"Anakin?" she mumbles, her eyes still adjusting to the sudden light she walked in upon.

He doesn't let her dare say another word and instead brings her into his chest, her ear pressed against his raised and quick heartbeat. Nothing had felt so good in that moment as he wrapped his muscular arms around her, refusing to let her go for moments on end as he rests his head upon hers, kissing it lightly while a tear slips from his eye. He blinks, resisting any other tears, and at last lets her go.

He can't think straight, walk straight nor speak straight as he looks at her, fear clouding his eyes and confusion washing over hers.

"Padmé," he chokes out, and her eyes widen at the sound of his unhealthy voice, "I'm - so glad you're okay. Are - are the children here?" He glances over her shoulder and mutters, "Oh, please tell me they're here - "

"They're here," Padmé whispers, and Anakin sighs of relief, still looking jittery and skittish. "Ani, is - is everything okay? What - what's wrong?"

He ignores her question and circles around her, storming to their bedroom quickly. "Anakin?" she calls after him, following him back to the room.

He begins to walk to the closet, but she throws her arm out in front of him. It slaps across his faintly-burnt tunic and stops him. "What are you doing?" she asks, her voice a shrill whisper as she hopes desperately Anakin hadn't awoken the sleeping children.

Anakin looks at her in her clouded eyes, the same look he gave her when he told her he was lost. When he told her he wanted more, and he knew he shouldn't. But this lasts a split second, this look, then it fades. He turns from her and grabs handfuls of clothes from the closet, tossing them onto the bed.

He snaps in the midst of what he's doing, "You have to leave. You can't stay here."

She knits her eyebrows, watching her frantic husband throw item after item onto the bed, not stopping.

"What do you mean?" she asks, daring to take a step forward. He doesn't seem harmful, he seems distraught. Panicked over something that worried Padmé, though she considered it might just have been nothing.

She balls her fists and rubs her eyes, still adjusting to the light. She looks at him again in confusion. He takes a breath, jagged and rough as he tosses another dress of hers onto the bed, "You have to take Luke and Leia with you. It isn't safe. You have to leave. Now," he stammers, his voice bold and almost starting to scare Padmé.

By now, she was horrified, and she mentions this as she steps forward again, nearing the closet. "Anakin, you're scaring me," she soft-speaks, her voice beginning to sound brash and quiet.

He looks up at her from shoving the clothes into a bag and blinks. She catches a tear slip down his cheek and bites her tongue to keep from crying herself. Something was really bothering him.

"I - I'm sorry," he chokes, "But it isn't safe here anymore. You have to take the children, and go to Naboo - "

"Ani, at least tell me why it isn't safe..." she whispers, nearing him delicately, gently, softly. She brings her hand to his chest, touching him lightly, batting her eyelashes sadly before him.

He looks down on her, his height overwhelming, and he swallows. "Demetrious," he croaks, bringing a shaking hand to her curls and stroking them behind her ear. He brings his voice to a whisper, and leans closer to her like he did the day after the Chancellor's rescue, the day they saw each other again at long last. "She wants Luke."

Padmé's eyes search his, darting back and forth from one eye to another. She scanned him for any source of a lie, but she could tell he was telling the truth. She bites her lip at a loss for words, letting Anakin speak again. "She - she wants him for his power, as an apprentice," Anakin chokes out, in the best voice he could manage that wasn't a sob.