Padmé opened her eyes slowly, adjusting to the bright shard of light cutting across the room, raindrops pattering against the elaborate windowpane in juxtaposition to the sunlight. She stretched her body to the peak of its extension, and yawned quietly. “Ani,” she nudged her husband gently, “time to wake up, it's morning.”

Anakin opened his eyes, and answered groggily, “Okay…” he yawned, his mouth stretching wide open. Anakin turned over on his side to face Padmé, and looked her in the eyes. He stared into their mahogany coloured ocean, losing himself in their depths, and after a moment, he put an arm around her, and pulled her against him, her head leaning against his chest.

“Anakin…” Padmé whined softly, “I told you it was time to get up…” she yawned again, quietly.

Anakin rolled over towards the outer edge of the bed,”Fine,” he spoke as he yawned. Anakin climbed out of bed, and changed into his day clothes. Padmé did the same, and they went to breakfast with the rest of the family.

Once everyone got their shuura fruit juice, one of Padmé's favorite drinks, and their pancakes with water chestnuts, they started to eat. The only sound in the room was the calming pitter-patter of the rain, and the scraping and clinking of forks and knives against their ceramic plates.

Ruwee and Jobal looked nervously at each other for a moment, and then over at Padmé. Ruwee cautiously interjected, “So, Padmé, if what Sola said is correct, this Jedi Knight,” he gestured in Anakin's direction, “is your newlywed husband?”

Padmé flushed, and glanced down at her plate, looking ashamed, “Yes Father, he is my husband. I'm sorry that I didn't ask for your approval, it had to be secret, there was no other way,” Padmé sighed heavily in disappointment with herself.

“Oh Padmé,” Jobal replied lovingly, “we aren't angry with you,” she smiled endearingly.

“We're just sad you didn't invite us,” Ruwee interjected playfully. He laughed his infectious laugh, and everyone else laughed with him.

* * * *

Padmé and Anakin went to their room and packed up the remainder of their clothes. Padmé took longer, since she was taking some of her childhood belongings with her. When they were done, they walked to the door, and went through a line of embraces.

Padmé group hugged Ryoo and Pooja, “I love you girls, be safe!” She smiled, and they giggled happily, then she gently broke the embrace, and their giggles slowly faded into tense smiles and dewey eyelashes. Padmé turned to her parents, and hugged Ruwee, and then Jobal, lingering with each embrace, “Love you Mom, love you Dad,” she smiled, tears starting to pool in her mahogany eyes, “goodbye, we'll see you later.”

Padmé turned to Sola, and embraced her, burying her head in her sister's shoulder. No words were said, they just held the embrace deeply, profoundly, already knowing each other well enough to predict what the other would say. Words could not express what they were feeling either, the pain, the agony, was just too great. Padmé finally broke the embrace, stepping reluctantly towards, and then out the door.

Now it was Anakin's turn, he stepped towards the girls, and they tackled him, clinging to his legs, “Please don't go Uncle Ani, please!” They begged him, pulling at his trousers as he tried to pry them off.

“Sorry,” he replied in a childish voice, “I have to go,” he pressed his lips to the top of each of the little girls’ heads. They're just like Padmé, only smaller, Anakin thought lovingly. “My duty to the galaxy, and as a Jedi, calls. Goodbye girls!”

He turned to Ruwee and Jobal, and shook Ruwee’s hand, each of them squeezing the other’s hand with their firm grip. They side hugged each other, Ruwee patting Anakin heartily on the back.

“Take good care of my daughter, son, I trust you,” he broke away, and looked Anakin seriously in the eyes, smiling kindly, but still with gravity.

Jobal looked him in the eyes, a smile spreading across her face and permeating her squinting eyes and the faint wrinkles around them, “I couldn't have asked for a better son-in-law, we love you Anakin, and we know you'll take good care of Padmé,” she squeezed his shoulder in a motherly way, and he was reminded faintly of his own mother, Shmi.

Anakin smiled back, and dipped his head, “thank you, I couldn't have asked for better in-laws,” he turned towards Sola, “thank you as well,” Anakin smiled in a brotherly sort of way, and Sola squeezed his shoulder firmly.

“Thank you for helping her be happy, you have no idea how much she needs you,” she whispered to Anakin. Then she squeezed his shoulder one last time with an extra, “really, thank you Anakin,” and broke contact.

Anakin stepped onto the ship with Padmé, an arm protectively around her waist, and they waved their final goodbyes. As the ramp closed, Padmé clung to Anakin, and she knew, she could tell nobody else now, nobody, about their relationship, it must seem to everybody else as just a fictional idea, a figment of imagination. She could no longer be duly honest with the public in that aspect.

Anakin's comlink beeped, and he pulled it out of his robes. Before he pushed the button he looked over at Padmé, “Can you set coordinates for Coruscant?”

“Yes,” she replied softly, and turned to the control console.

Anakin pressed the comlink button. “Hello, Anakin? Is that you?” came Obi Wan’s sophisticatedly accented voice.

“Yes, it is. What do you need?”

“As soon as you arrive on Coruscant, we need you and the 501st on a mission to the outer rim, in Utapau, okay?”

“Of course Obi Wan, I'll be there soon.” The comlink beeped off.

* * * *

As the ship landed in Padmé's private hangar, Anakin turned and embraced her, “I love you Padmé, don't worry, I'll be back from Utapau, I promise,” he whispered in her silky hair.

Padmé looked up at him with her mahogany brown orbs, “but when Ani, when?”

“I'm sorry Padmé,” he sighed regretfully, “I don’t know…”

Padmé nestled her head against Anakin's chest. Burying her hot, burning tears in Anakin's robes, clutching at folds in the fabric, clenching them, trying to squeeze out the pain through pressure, trying to hold on to her love, but she knew she would have to let him leave, let him risk his life for strangers’ sake. And yet he did it without fear. Her breath shook feebly, “Okay,” her hands unclenched, and let go of his robes, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

* * * *

Padmé stood, looking out the window at the landscape, filled with buildings stretching, reaching towards, touching, just brushing the sky. Light shone from the horizon’s firmament, giving her graceful, arching facial features an angelic, empyrean phosphorescence. The effulgent afterglow seemed to fluctuate, coruscate across her face, like a splitting supernova, lighting the entire universe. Like her and Anakin's love…

Anakin… Padmé couldn't seem to get her mind off of him. She couldn't help but love him, and be worried for him. He could be on the brink of death, and he would say something like: Kriff! Padmé, I'm not dying! I'm fine! That was her Ani, and Force, she loved him, more than anything else in the galaxy, enough to ignite every star in the universe. And she knew that he loved her just as much-no, more than that. He loved her enough to fight for peace, with her as his motivation, Anakin loved her enough to live his life, express his true feelings in secret, with her, even though it was dangerous. He, Anakin, her husband loved her so much that even though he was parsecs away travelling to Utapau, she could literally feel his love, reaching, running, flying in hyperdrive, to her,

Across The Stars.