Contact: 1 - Time to say hello

[kraythero]

[ The viewpoint spins very slowly and smoothly, not showing a face but a tree, the bark, a branch, a nest. Occasionally tiny fuzzy grey heads stick out over the nest, and their squawking can be heard. The nestlings are grey and white, with pin feathers and a couple have a crest. Someone is studying a nest of blue jays. ]

I’m pretty sure there is a parent around, but only pretty sure. I don’t really know what they are either. Some kind of bird but? Are they going to be alright? They keep yelling.

[ Help a new import out? ]

Which isn’t what I was thinking about saying, but they caught my attention. Anyway, I’ve been filled in, including being told I was here before, even if I don’t remember.

[ With that Anakin pulls the device closer to him, turning it to record him. He’s young, the scar over his face fresh and his hair is very short – he’s only recently knighted and had his braid cut, and his hair is still very short from the more traditional haircut. And his smile is not quite confident, even shy. ]

My name’s Anakin Skywalker, I’ve been here a couple days now. And um, so you need a ‘driver’s license’ I’ve been told. How many of you have gotten one, how did you do it? I’ve been a pilot all my life, these cars have to be easier than a ship. Even a speeder.

Comments

[kraythero]

So does the one here. It's probably mostly underground, it's a secure and safe way to build them.

[ It is very strange, to be like this. So close, so far, in such a foreign land. ]

I have no engagements planned, catching up with a friend would be welcome.

[ Completely proper and transparent - he hates the lies but it what they have decided on. But soon, soon they will be together, alone. And he can throw his arms around her and he with his beloved. ]

Video --> Action

[resoluteandunyielding]

[ Part of her smile escapes her more than it should, even if it's just at the furthest edges of her mouth. A little too pleased, even as she tries to push down, keep down the flood of delighted relief that tries to fill up her whole chest. That makes it hard to just press her lips instead of letting them turn too bright, and nod. There's always something about him the flirts with the edge of her control. Or with her want to maintain any of it, even when she knows she absolutely can.

Because so soon she won't have to at all. Not for a single breath. ] Good, then.

I'll send you the coordinates for my new location, and have food ordered over for your arrival.

[ There's so much more that wants to bubble up with the energy set free by knowing he'll be here soon, but she settles it into keeping her hands graceful and still as she punches in the information that will mean every minute is suddenly a minute less before he's finally with her again. ]

video --> action

[kraythero]

[ It's her smile. That she has to fight to keep it 'proper', what they could show in public. But he has a similar fight, trying to cram the excitement back behind a polite mask.

He gets to see her. Hold her in his arms. Feel her fingers on his cheek, hear her voice in person, and maybe, take a rest curled in each other's arms. Without fear of someone seeing something they should not. ]

I am deeply appreciative, M'lady. I will see you soon.

[ And there he cuts the feed. Speeds - literally, uses the Force to accelerate himself - home, grab what he'd need for the overnight and clean clothing and races for the bus to the Porter station. To arrive, catch another bus, and speed to the coordinates Padmé had given him. He arrives slightly breathless, face slightly red. ]

[resoluteandunyielding]

Padmé closes her eyes for a moment when the feed goes dark, lips and eyelids pressing with enough pressure to flutter both from it, as she takes a breath in her nose, before her smile breaks and she has to reach up and press her fingers to her mouth. A little foolishly, rubbing it up over her face lightly, smoothing the top of her hair, as she told herself to keep it together. She did still have the one other call to make. Not that she needed to maintain much in the way of etiquette for that short piece.

Her heart raced with the promise of each passing minute, bringing Anakin closer. It didn't upend that they shouldn't be here, and that here was a problem, but at least they were both here, and they could both figure it out together. It's been too long. It's always been too long before they know when they might see each other in passing, between his missions and his men, her Senate and her sessions, and even more rarely when they could ever manage more than a few stolen daylight hours, an evening, a night.

The call is easy. To a place not far down the block. One of those places that had left a leaflet in her mail a day earlier. Something that looked familiarly of protein, and noodles, and sauces, even if all the names were foreign and new. An assortment house specialties were bound to come up with something they'd both end up liking surely.

Just finishing up setting things in the kitchen so they would stay warm whenever they might be gotten to, she's just as glad to abandon all of her force-focus on it when a sound comes from the doorway. Even with her shoulders flat and her spine straight, opening the door, she feels too eager, and like seeing his face only a few feet away now takes all of her breath straight out of her.

She wants just to whisper the nickname that's taken up the rapid beat of her heart, but she's trained better than that, too. Especially with the door wide open, and she chooses, as she's been trained to, a softer open. Relevant, but light. (So much lighter than every impulse in her to walk the two, maybe three steps, forward and burying herself into his chest, his arms, him; her husband.)

"You made it faster than I thought you would, even with the Porter. Are the lines shorter in Heropa during this time of day?"