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[sith_happened]

Anakin was staring intently into space, lost in the memories of the weekend.

Not that he'd tell you that.

Nope.

The door was cracked open.

Delicate - Damien Rice

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[solo_sword]

"You are allowed to deny them, you know," Jaina pointed out. "It's one thing for her to know one side of it. She doesn't have to know yours."

[sith_happened]

"And this Padmé was before I'd grown up," Anakin said, grasping at straws. "She was wondering why I wasn't 12."

[solo_sword]

"Does that make it better or worse?" she wondered, not wanting to press with too many questions about the real relationship.

[sith_happened]

"She didn't know we would get married," Anakin replied. "She was still asking about the Temple. Maybe she didn't know how I felt."

Anakin wasn't that subtle.

[solo_sword]

"If she's still thinking of you as a twelve-year-old, maybe not," she tried. What a strange sentence.

[sith_happened]

"That version of her was, but I couldn't exactly see her as a kid," Anakin admitted. "It was beyond complicated."

[solo_sword]

"I can imagine," Jaina said, still frowning. "She's gone now, though. It's the past again." Sometimes it struck her as really strange to be able to talk about her own grandmother this way, all detached.

[sith_happened]

"I prefer my past twenty years in the past," Anakin sighed.

[solo_sword]

"Then moving on's the best way to leave it there," Jaina said quietly. "It's bad now, but it'll get better."

[sith_happened]

"It has to," Anakin replied, thoughts flickering up towards Rory.

[solo_sword]

"When I'm speaking optimistically, maybe there's something to it," she said gently.

[sith_happened]

Anakin moved to give her a swift kiss on the forehead to hide the suspicious shininess in his eyes.

"You are so much like her sometimes," he murmured.

[solo_sword]

"Thanks," she said, knowing he wouldn't mean that as anything but a compliment. "Does Luke know about this?"

[sith_happened]

"Some," he replied. "He managed to kidnap her on Sunday."

[solo_sword]

Jaina stared.

"Who did he think he was?" she asked, since that was the only way that would happen.

[sith_happened]

"Someone called the Joker, apparently. He didn't give me a lot of details."

Because Anakin hadn't left a lot of space to get a word in edgewise.

[solo_sword]

"So, just another fun family weekend in Fandom," Jaina said dryly. This wasn't doing much for her hating this town over the last few days.

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "Sometimes I really hate this place," he admitted.

[solo_sword]

"I'm with you there. Some normalcy now and then would be nice." Of course, she wasn't sure at the moment how to even approach the person she tended to think of as normalcy. "There are better residential hazards to have to suffer through. Like mynocks, or Hutts."

[sith_happened]

"You can see or smell them coming," Anakin agreed. "You aren't blindsided in a pastry shop or waking up tiny."

[solo_sword]

Another frown. "If I wake up tiny I'm going to be really upset when it's over," she said.

[sith_happened]

"If you wake up tiny, I promise you a story," Anakin replied.

[solo_sword]

"You're responsible for Threepio, I'm not sure I trust your stories," she teased.

[sith_happened]

"Cute," Anakin said, wrinkling his nose. "He found most of those on his own. I didn't have much variety growing up."

[solo_sword]

"I'll believe that when I'm tiny," she told him.