The two of them were alone together, while Jobal and Ruwee entertained Anakin out in the sitting room.
'Why do you keep saying such things about me and Anakin?'
'Because it's obvious,' Sola replied. 'You see it-you can't deny it to yourself.'
Padme sighed and sat down on the bed, her posture and expression giving all the confirmation that Sola needed.
'I thought Jedi weren't supposed to think such things,' Sola remarked. 'They're not.'
'But Anakin does.' Sola's words brought Padme's gaze up to meet hers. 'You know I'm right.'
Padme shook her head helplessly, and Sola laughed.
'You think more like a Jedi than he does,' she said. 'And you shouldn't.'
'What do you mean?' Padme didn't know whether to take offense, having no idea of where her sister was heading with this.
'You're so tied up in your responsibilities that you don't give any weight to your desires,' Sola explained. 'Even with your own feelings toward Anakin.'
'You don't know how I feel about Anakin.'
'You probably don't either,' Sola said. 'Because you won't allow yourself to even think about it. Being a Senator and being a girlfriend aren't mutually exclusive, you know.'
'My work is important!'
'Who said it wasn't?' Sola asked, holding her hands up in a gesture of peace. 'It's funny, Padme, because you act as if you're prohibited, and you're not, while Anakin acts as if he's under no such prohibitions, and he is!'
'You're way ahead of everything here,' Padme said. 'Anakin and I have only been together for a few days- before that, I hadn't seen him in a decade!' Sola shrugged. Her look went from that sly grin she had been sporting since dinner to one of more genuine concern for her sister. She sat down on the bed beside Padme and draped an arm across her shoulders. 'I don't know any of the details, and you're right, I don't know how you feel-about any of this. But I know how he feels, and so do you.'
Padme didn't disagree. She just sat there, comfortable in Sola's hug, gazing down at the floor, trying not to think. 'It frightens you,' Sola remarked. Surprised, Padme looked back up.
'What are you afraid of, Sis?' Sola asked sincerely. 'Are you afraid of Anakin's feelings and the responsibilities that he cannot dismiss? Or are you afraid of your own feelings?'
She lifted Padme's chin, so that they were looking at each other directly, their faces only a breath apart. 'I don't know how you feel,' she admitted again. 'But I suspect that it's something new to you. Something scary, but something wonderful.'
Padme said nothing, but she knew that disagreement would not be honest.
'They're a lot to digest, all at once,' Padme said to Anakin later on, when the two were alone in her room. She had barely unpacked her things, and was now throwing clothes into her bag once more. Different clothes this time, though. Less formal than the outfits she had to wear as a representative of Naboo.
'Your mother is a fine cook,' Anakin replied, drawing a curious stare from Padme, until she realized that he was joking and had understood her point perfectly well.
'You're lucky to have such a wonderful family,' Anakin said more seriously, and then, with a teasing grin, he added, 'Maybe you should give your sister some of your clothes.'
Padme smirked right back at him, but then looked about at the mess and couldn't really disagree. 'Don't worry,' she assured him. 'This won't take long.'
'I just want to get there before dark. Wherever there is, I mean.' Anakin continued to scan the room, surprised at the number of closets, all of them full. 'You still live at home,' he said, shaking his head. 'I didn't expect that.'
'I move around so much,' Padme replied. 'I've never had the time to even begin to find a place of my own, and I'm not sure I want to. Official residences have no warmth. Not like here. I feel good here. I feel at home.'
The simple beauty of her statement gave Anakin pause. 'I've never had a real home,' he said, speaking more to himself than to Padme. 'Home was always where my mom was.' He looked up at her then, and took comfort in her sympathetic smile.
Padme went back to her packing. 'The Lake Country is beautiful,' she started to explain, but she stopped when she glanced back at Anakin, to see him holding a holograph and grinning.
'Is this you?' he asked, pointing to the young girl, seven or eight at the most, in the holo, surrounded by dozens of little green smiling creatures, and holding one in her arms.
Padme laughed, and seemed embarrassed. 'That was when I went with a relief group to Shadda-Bi-Boran. Their sun was imploding and the planet was dying. I was helping to relocate the children.' She walked over to stand beside Anakin and placed one hand on his shoulder, pointing to the holograph with the other. 'See that little one I'm holding? His name was N'a-kee-tula, which means 'sweetheart.' He was so full of life-all those kids were.'
'Were?'
'They were never able to adapt,' she explained somberly. 'They were never able to live off their native planet.'
Anakin winced, then quickly picked up another holograph, this one showing Padme a couple of years later, wearing official robes and standing between two older and similarly robed Legislators. He looked back at the first holo, then to this one, noting that Padme's expression seemed much more severe here. 'My first day as an
