Anakin didn't catch up with Ahsoka until she had reached the small suite of rooms they'd shared whenever they were at the Temple, rather than somewhere in the field, where they could end up sleeping anywhere from a palace to a thick bush, in just about any weather imaginable.
It was where the keepsakes lived, the little mementos, the trophies. Anakin's eyes briefly rested on a pair of binders, held together with a short cable tie, the original fastening point severed by a lightsaber strike. Next to them, he spotted a collar, with a couple of links of chain hanging from it. It was wrapped with a single piece of black fabric.
Ahsoka was in her quarters.
Knocking, he waited for a moment, before stepping through the door. His former padawan was holding a case, and was in the act of placing it on the bed when the door slid open.
She looked a bit guilty, when he saw it.
"Moving out already?" He asked.
"These are padawan quarters, Master." She replied.
"Ahsoka..." he said, noticing her stepping towards her wardrobe.
She put the case back on the bed, with a slight grin.
"Well, Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker," she said. "I'm not your padawan anymore."
"I'm aware of that." He commented. "You're a Jedi Knight."
Ahsoka cocked her head slightly, trying to figure out what he meant.
"Well, I no longer have some of the duties of care I used to towards you." He pointed out. "I also no longer have the duty not to have any form of relationship with you other than as a mentor and teacher."
"Master?" Ahsoka asked, her voice nearly tailing off softly.
He just opened his arms.
She stepped in between them, eyes shining.
"There's nothing between us now, Snips. Nothing at all."
Then he kissed her, full on the lips, and she could feel his intentions through the Force.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she replied, pressing close to him, reaching out with the Force to the door panel, and locking the door. She also hit the sonic dampers. They'd know if a bomb went off in the corridor, but no one would hear anything less than that.
"I love you." He whispered, breaking the kiss, and holding her very close.
"I know." She whispered back, feeling his strong arms under her hips.
Then one of those hands rose behind her, inside two layers of Jedi robes, and unlatched the tiny clip he found just below her shoulder blades.
"You're sure?" He asked.
"I'm sure." She replied. "I don't want to forget this."
Anakin didn't waste much time after that. Within a minute, their robes were on the floor, along with what little had been underneath them.
Anakin just held Ahsoka, drinking in the sight of her, seeing the gleam in her eyes as she wrapped herself around him, and then they were on the bed, learning all of the little things about each other that would ensure success.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Obi-wan knocked on another door a few minutes later.
He felt a sense of welcome a few moments later, and pushed open the door, closing it carefully behind him, carrying the silver tray, complete with covered serving dish, in one hand.
"What is it?" Shaak-Ti asked, curiously, scenting well-cooked protein in the air.
"Something we can share." Her lover replied, dabbing a kiss onto her cheek, as she moved to embrace him, quite differently to the way Ahsoka had wrapped herself around Anakin. "An alderaanian risotto, with braised steak."
"A risotto?" She asked, curiously, returning the more courtly kiss.
"Sometimes Anakin's old girlfriend came up with. The rice is in fact meat protein, flavoured with the ester that flavours rice, and formed into grains of rice."
"Clever." Shaak-Ti remarked, as she looked out the place settings. "It won't be a problem for you?"
"I can't eat too much of it, or I'll lose my figure." He said. "Still, I'm sure that in such good company, I can work up a bit of an appetite quickly enough."
Her laugh lit up the room, as Obi-wan lit a candle on the table, and cracked open a small bottle of wine, pouring a generous measure into the two glasses on the table.
--0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Anakin could feel the mischief approaching him as he showered very distinctly.
"Snips..." He said. "We've got a table booked at Laido's in an hour. We don't have time."
Ahsoka seemed somewhat disappointed. "You're sure?" She asked, her voice slightly hoarse.
"I'm sure. Tonight, though, we'll have all the time in the world." (1)
He felt the grin on her face as he worked the shampoo deeper into his scalp, clearing the last of the mixture of human and togruta musks, before rinsing carefully, washing the foam and particles out of his hair.
As he stepped out, he gently pecked the nude togruta on left montral, wrapping a towel around his waist. "Get in the shower, you."
Ahsoka grinned as she clambered into the shower cubicle, feeling a finger briefly run down her spine, sending a storm of messages through her body, before the mechanical screen swung into place, and the water began cascading over her montrals.
Carefully, Anakin selected his best robes, those he'd been given for his own graduation as a Jedi Knight, even as brief and wartime as the ceremony had been. They were far more carefully woven than the traditional robes, softer, and smoother. They reduced distractions, and had made meditation less challenging.
A small package at the back of his wardrobe had been for Ahsoka.
Smiling, he looked it out, laying the contents on her bed.
A few minutes later, she stepped out of the shower, and slowly walked through the small space that separated her from the entryway into her room with her hips swaying exaggeratedly and the towel fastened just below her armpits. He knew she was doing it to tease him, and her force-presence danced with amusement at the ease with which she could have such an effect on her Master.
There was no undignified squeal when she found the new robes Anakin had selected for her, all those months before. He just felt a bolt of glee in her presence, quite distinct from some of the other sensations he'd been picking up from her a bit more recently.
Then she came back through, the robes neatly sitting on her body. They were the same style as Anakin's, made from tan wool, with a darker outer robe. The robe had been customized specifically, with an oversized hood possibly five times the volume of her head. Right now, it looked rather silly, engulfing her head and montrals several times over, forcing her to store the majority of the fabric behind the tips of her montrals, with only enough hanging over to keep the garment in place without the Force being involved.
Anakin grinned, before she crossed the room, and decided to do some cuddling.
He reciprocated, before she broke off, having glimpsed the wall mounted chrono, and heading for the hangar. He followed close behind, pausing just long enough to collect his speeder keys and lock the door.
It was a fairly uneventful journey, even through Coruscanti traffic. Anakin touched down the speeder outside the restaurant about ten minutes before their reservation, and just after another speeder with Jedi Temple holoplates.
Obi-wan nodded to his former padawan as he assisted Shaak-Ti out of the speeder, in a fashion that set Anakin to mind of a knight helping his lady down from her palfrey in an holodrama. Above them, a third speeder arrived, carrying Padmé, Typho, and Bail Organa. Greetings were quickly exchanged, before they found themselves being ushered inside by several very firm waitstaff, who Anakin considered, briefly, recruiting, and employing as military cat herders, in charge on ensuring that logistics ran smoothly.
None of them, even Typho, noticed the holoshill in a small speeder hovering about two hundred yards away with a telephoto lens.
They were shown to a booth, with seven settings, although one vanished quite quickly with the exchange of a pair of glances between Typho and one of the waiters, before he took up an unobtrusive position with line of sight to both doors and kitchen without needing to turn his head, however briefly.
Ahsoka slid into the semi-circular arrangement first, sitting comfortably on the expensively upholstered seats, before Anakin slid in beside her. Shaak-Ti and Obi-wan took the other side of the booth, while Bail and Padmé sat in the armchairs that had been provided for diners who wanted in individual chair.
"So." Padmé said to Ahsoka, once all the usual pleasantries had been exchanged. "How is he?"
"I don't have any real basis for comparison, Senator." Ahsoka replied, tasting the precise meaning of the question, and the smiles it brought to the faces of Obi-wan and Shaak-Ti. "But he's very attentive."
Anakin was busy trying not to notice the not-quite adolescent contact between his former Master and Shaak-Ti, but still found the time to make a brief handcuff gesture to Padmé, who grinned back without attempting to conceal her rosy blush.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The holonet site the pictures of the small party arriving outside Laido's were loaded onto was the rough equivalent of a grimy undercity tapcaf, compared to the Michelin-starred towering edifice that was a broadcaster such as HNN or GNBC. It was funded largely through adverts for some of the more extreme fetishes to be found in the galaxy, largely viewed by those who had restraining orders, or who would have been served one in a heartbeat, had they ever been able to exit their bedrooms. Unfortunately, it was also on another network.
"We have a hit for their location."
"Excellent. Saddle up. We'll be very major news in the near future."
The six man Nikto hit squad clambered into their beige speedervan, before setting off for Laido's restaurant.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Padmé, unsurprisingly, as far as Anakin was concerned, contented herself with a large glass of kavje juice, a relatively tart, glistening purple drink that might well have put the uninitiated in mind of a cleaning fluid. He had ordered a carafe of the house red, which turned out to be an excellent vintage, if not a classic, but very drinkable.
Ahsoka ordered herself a rare steak, with bacon chips and garlic sauce. Anakin went for a stew, containing gently stewed gornt, and large amounts of vegetable matter, presented in such a way that it was identifiable without anything more complicated than visual scanning being required. Obi-wan chose a layered pie, thick puff-pastry surrounding a mass of fried chicken in masala sauce. Shaak-Ti, somewhat surprisingly, went for a meat curry. Padmé had clearly gone through the three stages of virtuous eating, giving up, following her cravings, and eating normally, choosing a duck dish presented in orange sauce.
It wasn't long before the conversation turned to more important matters.
"Have you been following the Thugball, Master?" Anakin asked.
"There's been a few good matches lately." Obi-wan replied. "Nothing like the last day of the six sectors, but some solid matches."
"Did they let the Jedi into the Coruscant league, in the end?"
"No. It was decided that a kicker who could hit the centre of the posts in a hurricane from behind his own try-line would be an unfair advantage. Never mind that they'd have had to suspend most of the rest of the laws if they didn't want to be awarding a penalty every time the opposing team passed the ball."
"No one mentioned Ysalamiri?" Anakin asked.
"Those are the last thing we want on Coruscant. It doesn't matter how hard they are to steal, someone would manage, and then we'd find it near damned impossible to catch them, or to get hold of them."
"There would be the option of having a Jedi referee."
"They're twitchy enough about a Coruscanti referee officiating in any match featuring the core sector team."
"We are trained to be impartial."
Obi-wan coughed slightly. "Trained. Not forced."
"You may have a point, Master."
Once they'd finished the mains, it was on to dessert. Padmé selected a knickerbocker glory. Ahsoka went for a selection of premium dried meats. Obi-wan chose a liquor coffee, as did Shaak-Ti. Anakin, after much deliberation, chose a slice of cheesecake.
Once the dessert course had been disposed of, Ahsoka was feeling a little restless, and a touch warm.
"Master." She said, gently pecking Anakin on the ear. "I'm just going for some fresh air."
"See you in a couple of minutes." He replied, as she clambered out of the booth.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The air in the landing area outside the restaurant was a few degrees cooler than it had been when Ahsoka stepped outside, causing her to tunnel deeper into her robes. Had she been a bit older, and not raised as cleanly, she'd have taken the opportunity to extract a packet of bac-sticks from her pocket, and light one, before smoking it. Instead, she made do with one of her special stock of jerky sticks, which, although he wasn't entirely unsuspecting, Anakin had no idea about them being laced with a mild euphoric compound.
Twenty seconds after she started sucking one of them, it began to kick in.
Then her danger sense went wild as well, and she threw herself forwards, as a volley of fire from a silenced automatic slugthrower tore through the air where she'd perhaps been an instant before.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Anakin felt her sudden alarm at almost the same instant Shaak-Ti and Obi-wan did. The three Jedi Masters moved almost at once, signalling Typho to remain with the senators, drawing their lightsabers before they were out of the door.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Despite her agility, and precognitive abilities, and indeed her three years of combat experience, Ahsoka was still hit by a burst of gunfire before she could entirely get her bearings, sending a wave of agony ripping through the Force as the rounds ripped a hole in her torso, penetrating a lung, perforating her intestines, and shredding a kidney for good measure.
She just slumped to the ground, lying, face upwards, with her blue eyes wide open, looking into the face of a Nikto, still holding an automatic weapon.
"Darth Sidious sends his regards." He said, raising his weapon, aiming it between her eyes. She felt the slightly warm metal of the gun barrel kiss the bridge of her nose, and watched the trigger sliding slowly backwards, almost in slow motion. Then darkness rolled across her eyes, and she went limp. The last thing she saw before it all black went was a cyan flash.
(1) Yes, this is a reference/foreshadowing via On Her Majesty's Secret Service.