XV. CLOSE TO YOU
word count: 2483

               Five days passed after their trip North, and Elia did not see Anakin once. She was certain he was avoiding her. What had she done now? He could act kindly to her and then change like the weather. Did he hate her that much? To drag her thoughts through this torment that left her with just enough hope before he pulled away again?

She had to move on. Truly. Leave the childish delusion with the child version of herself. Elia was going to marry one of her best friends (even if neither of them loved the other in the way an engaged couple should), she had a lot to be happy and grateful for. Especially when news trickled down the vine that Padmé had arrived on Aphelion. And Elia went to visit her as soon as possible.

Queen Ianthe had organised for the Senator of Naboo to stay in a pretty cottage in the village of Saturn, which was located at the foot of the other side of the mountain range that the palace was built against. Padmé and Elia sat in two comfy armchairs in the little cottage's living room, sipping tea while they caught up with each other. The threat to Padmé's life was not gone, but circumstances had changed and Athena sent Padmé to Aphelion. It broke Elia's heart to know Padmé was still in danger, but she was glad Padmé could be kept safe on Aphelion.

"What was it that changed?" Elia asked quietly, hands clasped tightly around her mug of tea.

Padmé shuffled slightly in her seat. "Interrogators on Coruscant finally got information from the assassin — she said she was working with a Mandalorian bounty hunter named Jango Fett — and Master Kenobi set off tracking him down. The bounty hunter tracked me and Athena to Naboo... I thought we were both going to die, but neither of us were hurt. But Athena asked her sister Zara, the scientist, to run tests on the toxic dart Athena and Anakin found on the first assassin, and from the Mandalorian bounty hunter when he attacked us at the lake house. The darts came from a planet called Kamino."

Elia scrunched up her face, her heart still in her throat. "I've never heard of such a planet."

"Neither had I," Padmé admitted. "But Athena brought me here in an unmarked ship, thanks to Queen Jamillia's blessing. Now Thena is returning to Coruscant to find Kamino with Master Kenobi."

Elia took Padmé's hands tightly in her own. "I'm glad you're here. And I'm glad you're safe." At her words, Elia noticed Padmé's posture stiffen like she was holding a terrible weight and her shoulders were buckling. "Is there something else?"

Padmé's voice dropped to a whisper. "I overheard Master Kenobi telling Athena that the first assassin was broken out of prison."

"She had help escaping?"

"I don't know how... Athena said the assassin had sisters, she was not alone. Perhaps she is part of a network..." Elia watched the Amidala mask break — she saw the Naberrie girl beneath. The girl who was fearless throughout their shared girlhoods, Padmé was frightened. After a few seconds, Padmé composed herself. Elia wished her friend did not feel reason to hide (perhaps the Naberrie girl and the Amidala woman were one in the same now). "I will have to stay here a while. We should not let people know where I am. And I need you to promise me you will stay as safe as you possibly can."

Elia forced a smile. "I am always safe." She paused. "Do you think she will come after us again? After us?"

"I won't let that happen." Anakin's voice made Elia jump. She twisted to face him. She did not know Anakin was in the house. But the way he spoke... it sounded stronger than a promise.

The Princess' eyes narrowed by a fraction as she looked at the Jedi. "Why are you here?"

"I am still a Jedi bodyguard," Anakin answered. "Master Kenobi asked me to look out for Senator Amidala as well — and Rhea will be here when I cannot be."

Padmé rose and took Elia's hands to pull her to her feet as well. "I have something for you."

Elia watched Anakin as Padmé led her out of the living room. He was looking at her... in a different way to usual. (Did she really look at him so much to notice his expressions?) His stare was not so cold this time.

Padmé brought Elia to her bedroom. A modest but pretty room with dainty floral wallpaper and matching bed sheets on the light wood frame. Padmé withdrew a suitcase from beneath the bed and she turned to Elia with a wide smile. "Close your eyes."

Sceptical, Elia raised an eyebrow but did as she was told. She heard Padmé's shuffles and then a box was placed into her hands. "Open!"

Elia opened her eyes to see a familiar bolt of fabric folded carefully in an open box in her arms. Elia's face crumpled, she smiled while blinking back tears. "You didn't..."

"We all agreed," Padmé explained with a proud grin. "You're part of our family, as Naberrie as I am. You always have been. It's only fair that you should have a share our wedding fabric. I'm sorry you don't have much time to make something with it, but you're fabulous and you can make anything work."

Setting the box on Padmé's bed as carefully as possible with her hands trembling, Alana pulled her oldest friend in a bone-crushing hug. "I love you, thank you."

✶

Anakin felt sick to his stomach when the Queen of Aphelion invited him to join her family's visit to the Royal Ballet. He would have been fine — happy, in fact — to spend time with his brother and the family that still considered him their hero, if he had not woken suddenly at daybreak from a dream about Elia. After spending the morning minding Senator Amidala and trying to avoid Elia when she showed up at the cottage, Anakin did not want to spend his evening in the same place. But he could not decline Queen Ianthe's invitation (he did not realise it at ten, since everyone scared him, but the Queen still intimidated him).

He could not look his brother in the eye when they met outside the Royal Theatre to find the Royal Box together. Oberyn talked to him — about wedding plans and Anakin's thoughts on ballet (neither brother had seen a show before) — but the young Jedi scarcely replied.

Oberyn stopped them halfway down one of the private corridors, clutching Anakin's upper arm with concern knitted across his features. Anakin still tried to not look at his brother. He decided to focus on the corridor instead — a multitude of well-dressed patrons brushed past them; the corridor was ornate with a gold veined ceiling and a maroon carpet, and paintings hung on the wall capturing what Anakin assumed to be the most famous shows that Aphelion's ballet had performed.

"Anakin, you look pale. Are you alright?"

Anakin stiffened. He was not alright. He had spent the night dreaming of his brother's fiancee, helplessly imagining a scenario where they were not interrupted in the kitchen of Lilith's mother's house, a scenario where Elia's soft gaze did not falter and she looked at him with sweet longing, a scenario where they... (Fuck, now he was really thinking about it again.) "I'm fine," he murmured and tried to pull out of his brother's grasp.

Oberyn looked neither convinced nor impressed. His concerned expression morphed into one that looked like annoyance. (Anakin felt like the boy in the workshop on Tatooine again, dragging his feet home after dark while Oberyn pulled him along because Anakin had spent too long listening to space pilots' stories again.) "Are you just sour over the wedding again? You cannot blame me and El for this. And you need to stop making her feel bad about something that happened years ago — Athena has moved on far more than you give her credit for."

Anakin gave a bitter huff. Thankfully, he did not have to spend anymore time trying to make a fake excuse: Viceroy Ambrose called them along from down the end of the corridor, where the Royal Box sat. With a quick swing of his arm, Anakin released himself from the hold Oberyn had on his arm, and he turned to resume walking down the corridor with Oberyn on his heels.

There were only six seats in the Royal Box (there were only six members of the family): four on the front row, two seats behind. The Queen, Viceroy, and Princess Eden had taken three of the four front seats. Anakin realised Elia was not there yet.

"Oberyn!" Eden turned in her seat, silver-white braids bouncing against her back. "Sit next to me! Lei is getting us sweets, but she munches loudly so I told her she has to sit behind us."

Oberyn chuckled. He motioned for Anakin to take one of the back row seats and mouthed "Behave" to his younger brother before taking his seat beside the Princess. Anakin sunk into his chair. He was ready to slump, but the seats were far softer than he anticipated.

Elia returned a few minutes later, huffing about the bad selection of treats at the concessions stand. She passed a striped paper bag to Eden and gave a packet of some Nabooian snack Anakin did not recognise to Oberyn. She took her seat next to Anakin and produced an identical bag to Eden.

"I'm sorry," she said as she offered the bag to Anakin. "I wasn't sure what you like. I hope this will be okay."

Surprised, Anakin took the bag. He peered inside to see a number of small, brightly wrapped treats. "Oh." He cracked an honest smile. "Thank you."

He watched Oberyn offer one of his sweets to Elia. She took one gratefully and balled up the foil wrapping as she popped the sweet into her mouth. Then she threw the wrapper at the back of Oberyn's head. Oberyn flicked the sweet wrapper out of his hair and turned to Elia with a fake aghast expression. Then he threw the same wrapper back at the Princess. Elia giggled. (Anakin desperately needed to hear that sound a million more times.)

Then Anakin noticed the way Oberyn looked at Elia, the same way he looked at his adoptive sister, Padmé: with admiration. In the time he had been on Aphelion, Anakin had never seen Elia look at Oberyn the way she looked at him. (This is stupid, Anakin reminded himself. He was in no position to have an opinion on this relationship — but still, his foolish mind persisted.)

Anakin picked a chocolate out of his bag and tried not to let his amazement show on his face. On Mandalore, he and Oberyn had all kinds of treats. On Tatooine, they had nothing. And at the Jedi Temple, sweets were still a rare luxury. Anakin knew he should savour them, but the chocolate and sweets were almost addictive. Thankfully, this distracted him enough from his other thoughts until the lights went low and the ballet began.

He watched, curious, as ballerinas glided across the stage. Anakin knew nothing about ballet, but something about it had him enraptured — particularly the girl who held the spotlight in the centre of the stage, veiled in white lace to cover her identity. As if the Force was whispering to him, drawing Anakin in. Until the first act came to an end (and Princess Eden whispered that she was bored and asked Oberyn to go on a walk with her), Anakin hardly blinked.

"So, uh," Anakin whispered to Elia, leaning closer to her in the low light, "what is this thing actually about?"

In the dark, Elia's eyes glistened. "Okay so! It's about one of the Thirteen Apheli gods, Idrys — he's the God of Flame and Creation, think a craftsman or a sort of blacksmith — who fell in love with a mortal woman called Celine. As years passed, Idrys realised Celine would not live forever and he tried to make her immortal using ancient magic..."

The short break ended and the ballet resumed but Elia continued, her voice growing more hushed under the swell of the orchestra's music. Anakin tried to pay attention to Elia's words, but found himself quickly distracted. If during the ballet Anakin could barely blink, now he could scarcely breathe. Elia's gaze shifted between the stage and Anakin to outline the story as it took place before them. But all the young Jedi could focus on was her lips. The way they closed around certain letters, the shape of her jaw, the way her lips parted slightly as she breathed, and the pull of her cheeks as she smiled. He watched all of her: the way wisps of brown hair curled around her ears even when it was pulled back; the shine of her eyes, wide as she looked at him. Anakin felt uncomfortably hot all over and dug his fingers into the armrests of his seat.

Elia noticed his tension, her expression grew soft. She hesitated before placing one of her hands over his. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

He stared at her wordlessly for a moment. Anakin had been stationed on Aphelion to protect the Princess. He had never cared for her since Athena's accident, this job was supposed to be beneath him. So why had he begun to care now? Against friends who would leave her, against an angry mob — he would probably curse the Queen in the Princess' defence. In Elia's defence. He wanted to feel her name on his lips again, but he could not move. Anakin thought back to the caves, and when they stood so close in the kitchen at Lilith's mother's. And he was reminded of that first night in Kaldani Spires. She had looked just as pretty that night as she did now. Fuck, he needed to sort himself out. The swirling dragon of guilt gnawed inside him, turning his stomach upside down as Elia looked at him still.

Anakin forced himself to nod, moving stiffly. The way she tilted her head, he wanted to— This is wrong, Anakin told himself. His brother and Princess Eden shuffled quietly back into their seats. Perfect timing. Oberyn would never forgive him if he did anything to Elia. Anakin gritted his teeth. His brother was about to marry this girl. Besides, he was a Jedi — he was never supposed to have these feelings. Never. He could suffer in silence for the rest of the night. The wedding was nearly here and then he could leave and never look back... But could he? If by some chance he could change the situation, would he? For Elia... (Anakin had never wanted something so bad in his life.)

✶

AUTHOR'S NOTE

let's pretend anakin was a little more delusional and picked apart oberyn & elia's relationship more. i could not work out what else to say and this chapter was tough LMFAO. in classic hope fashion, i will be rewriting (but hopefully not until i finish the fic!)

we're very close to the end of act two now and i CAN'T WAIT for it to be done!!