Soon after, Anakin, Padme, and Ruwee were sitting at the dinner table, comfortably quiet and listening to the bustle in the next room, which included the clanking of stoneware plates and mugs, and Sola repeatedly saying, 'Too much, Mom.' And every time she said that, Ruwee and Padm smiled knowingly.
'I doubt they've been starving all the way from Coruscant,' an exasperated Sola said as she exited the kitchen, glancing back over her shoulder as she spoke. She returned carrying a bowl full of food.
'Enough to feed the town?' Padme asked Sola quietly as her older sister put the bowl on the table.
'You know Mom,' came the answer, and the tone told Anakin that this was not an isolated incident, that Jobal was quite the hostess. Despite the fact that he had eaten recently, the bowl of food looked and smelled temptingly good.
'No one has ever left this house hungry,' Sola explained.
'Well, one person did once,' Padme corrected. 'But Mom chased him down and dragged him back in.'
'To feed him or cook him?' the quick-witted Padawan retorted, and the other three stared at him for just a moment before catching on and bursting out in laughter.
They were still chuckling when Jobal entered the room, holding an even larger bowl of steaming food, which of course only made them laugh all the louder. But then Jobal fixed an imposing stare over her family and the chuckling quieted.
'They arrived just in time for dinner,' Jobal said. 'I know what that means.' She set the plate down near Anakin and put her hand on his shoulder. 'I hope you're hungry, Anakin.'
'A little.' He looked up and gave her a warm smile.
The look of gratitude was not lost on Padme. She tossed a little wink his way when he looked back at her. 'He's being polite, Mom,' she said. 'We're starving.'
Jobal grinned widely and nodded, offering superior glances at Sola and Ruwee, who just laughed again. It was all so comfortable to Anakin, so natural and so… so much like what he had always been wanting in his life, though perhaps he had not known it. This would be perfect, absolutely perfect, except that his mother wasn't there.
A brief cloud passed over his face as he thought of his mother on Tatooine, and considered the disturbing dreams that had been finding their way into his sleep of late. He pushed the thoughts away quickly and glanced around, glad that no one seemed to have noticed.
' If you're starving, then you came to the right place at the right time,' Ruwee said, looking at Anakin as he finished. 'Eat up, son!'
Jobal and Sola took their seats and began passing the food bowls all around. Anakin took a good helping of several different dishes. The food was all unfamiliar, but the smells told him that he wouldn't be disappointed. He sat quietly as he ate, listening with half an ear to the chatter all about him. He was thinking of his mom again, of how he wished he could bring her here, a free woman, to live the life she so deserved. Some time passed before Anakin tuned back in, cued by the sudden seriousness in Jobal's voice as she said to Padme, 'Honey, it's so good to see you safe. We were so worried.'
Anakin looked up just in time to see the intense, disapproving glare that Padme answered with. Ruwee, obviously trying to dispel the tension before it could really begin, put his hand on Jobal's arm and quietly said, 'Dear…'
'I know, I know!' said the suddenly animated Jobal. 'But I had to say it. Now it's done.'
Sola cleared her throat. 'Well, this is exciting,' she said, and everyone looked at her. 'Do you know, Anakin, you're the first boyfriend my sister ever brought home?'
'Sola!' Padme exclaimed. She rolled her eyes. 'He isn't my boyfriend! He's a Jedi assigned by the Senate to protect me.'
'A bodyguard?' Jobal asked with great concern. 'Oh, Padme, they didn't tell us it was that serious!'
Padme's sigh was intermixed with a groan. 'It's not, Mom,' she said. 'I promise. Anyway, Anakin's a friend. I've known him for years. Remember that little boy who was with the Jedi during the blockade crisis?'
A couple of 'ahs' of recognition came back in response, along with nodding heads. Then Padme smiled at Anakin and said, with just enough weight to make him recognize that her previous claims about his place here weren't entirely true, 'He's grown up.'
Anakin glanced at Sola and saw that she was staring at him, scrutinizing him. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
'Honey, when are you going to settle down?' Jobal went on. 'Haven't you had enough of that life? I certainly have!'
'Mom, I'm not in any danger,' Padme insisted, taking Anakin's hand in her own.
'Is she?' Ruwee asked Anakin.
The Padawan stared hard at Padme's father, recognizing the honest concern. This man, who obviously loved his daughter so much, deserved to know the truth. 'Yes, I'm afraid she is.'
Even as the words left his mouth, Anakin felt Padme's grip tighten. 'But not much,' she added quickly, and she turned to Anakin, smiling, but in a you'll-pay-for-that-later kind of way. 'Anakin,' she said quietly, her teeth gritted, locked into that threatening smile.
'The Senate thought it prudent to give her some time away, and under the protection of the Jedi,' he said, his tone casual, showing no reflections of the pain he was feeling as Padme's fingernails dug into his hand. 'My Master, Obi-Wan, is even now seeing to the matter. All should be well soon enough.'
His breath came easier as Padme loosened her grip, and Ruwee, and even Jobal, seemed to relax. Anakin knew that he had done well, but he was surprised to see that Sola was still staring at him, still smiling as if she knew a secret.
He gave her a quizzical look, but she only smiled all the wider.
