Saga Beneath the Dimming Sky - A/A surrealistic honeymoon on Naboo

Title: Beneath the Dimming Sky
Author(s): zeekveerko
Timeframe: immediately following AOTC
Characters: Anakin / Padme
Genre: romance / poetry / humor
Keywords: A/A
Summary: just after their marriage, Anakin and Padme sit in the field surrounded by waterfalls and reflect on their possible futures
Notes: Reposted from the old board.

==================

Beneath the Dimming Sky

"Your love is the blood inside my veins," she said.

He smiled, his teeth vaguely peering through his thin lips. Sweet sapphire eyes brighter than the clearest skies.

"Your smile is everything to me," she said.

"You tell me lies to please me, Padmé," he said softly, then cast his eyes to the passing clouds above.

"I only speak my heart..."

Stars raced, fleeting, to touch Naboo's lush horizon, billions of gallons of perfect, clear water crashed behind them, daytime gave way to night tide as she waited for his reply. Before her eyes, below the streaking stars, she watched the galaxy unfold. An empire rose, betraying her existence. Never would she be to see her children learn to speak. Friends died, love soured and turned to hate, which rent worlds asunder in clashing red thunder and brilliant blue lightning. Even the power of Yoda could not defeat the sadist madness of Palpatine.

"I fear that your heart may change, and I will return to infancy, a slave to my love for you," Anakin said.

"What would you do in my absence, sweet Ani, would you release your bottled anger for me? Would you kill to quench your pain?"

He said, "I..." but his words failed him; he could not deny the darkness within. He could not lie to her. Finally he found his resolve and turned his stony eyes to her supple form, made evident by her loose flowered dress that clung to her curves in ways he often envied. "I would rather not have that question answered. I do not wish to lose you to find out how I would react."

"I won't judge you," she said. "I can only ask that you choose what you know is right in every situation."

"I know what's right," he said, and tossed his gaze to the grass, plucked small green glades absently. She saw the little boy from Watto's shop beside her, his childlike defiance a darkside glimmer she would never detect. The most powerful Jedi was a frail young man who could barely control his emotions, and she could read all the signs that pointed to his propensity for tragedy.

She knew she was the momentary anchor that held his emotions together. She feared the moment that the tie would break. The emotional explosion from the biggest time bomb in the galaxy would affect everyone in the empire. She then knew how much weight her love for the chosen one carried. Everything was at stake.

"When you go to sleep on this night only I will be with you, my love," he said quietly, "and when you awaken in the morning mine will be the first face you see."

"I would like that, if only for one night, but this night I will not sleep, for tomorrow you will be gone, and lightyears between our hearts." She refused the tears that filled her eyes, stiffened her face to refrain the swell of mourning cries.

"You know I would gladly give it up to be with you, Padme, if only for one lifetime..."

His words chilled her bones; so honestly he professed that he would forsake his duty to the peoples of the galaxy for her love. "You cannot refuse your destiny, Anakin," she said. "You will return to your duties, and I to mine."

"I will not have rest without you."

"Oh, Ani..." she said, her voice aflutter. She rested her head on his shoulder and listened to the breeze and the rushing falls.

He clicked his metal fingers together absently and stared at clouds, finding shapes in them. To his amusement a lanky gungan-shaped cloud wobbled into view, then tripped and tumbled ever-slowly into a crumpling Jedi robe. He reminisced about future betrayals, fights, and losses of innocence. He remembered the darkness yet unlived between this and his d