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Sprinting down the hallway of a Corscanti building, you were currently chasing after a bounty hunter that had almost tried to assassinate a senator. With you and Anakin’s quick reflexes, the hunter was unsuccessful with his shot and quickly attempted to flee the scene before either of you could catch up to him, and now had two Jedi trailing behind him, sensing his presence with every movement. The retrieval of the assassin was on the tip of your fingers.
When you reached the end of the hall, you bolted through the open doors that looked like someone else ran through earlier. Out on the balcony of the building, you saw the bounty hunter and Anakin with his lightsaber ignited. It was a beautiful night on Coruscant– the lights from other tall structures and blinking cars were prudent against the darkness of the night. The senator that you both were protecting should’ve had a lovely formal presentation and supper to celebrate another political triumph until they were rudely interrupted by a laser blast. You might’ve even enjoyed the fancy drinks and tiny cuisines on a night such as this, but unfortunately, duty calls.
The blue light crackled and whirred as he pointed it towards the floor, reminding the hunter who was standing in the way if he chose to escape. There was nowhere else for the man to go, he was cornered.
“You have nowhere to run, assassin,” Anakin called out, pointing his blade at the man. He only scoffed in response.
“Are you going to arrest me? Tell me not to do it again and go back to sitting on your Jedi high horse?” He laughed.
“Oh, there’s a fate worse for killers like you,” Anakin said, stalking towards him and raising the blade to the side of the hunter’s neck. He flinched and you stepped forward at the quick movement.
“Anakin, no.” You reached out to him, but it was no use, he continued to stand his ground with his weapon mere inches from the bounty hunter’s neck. You couldn’t see it from your position behind him, but Anakin was seething. The hunter was glancing around, looking at the blaster tossed across the floor and then down to his tool belt and back up to meet Anakin’s eyes.
“What, you’re gonna kill me?” The man scoffed. “Not very Jedi-like of you to kill an innocent man.”
“You’re not innocent,” Anakin said through gritted teeth.
“Stand down, Anakin. Lower your weapon and we can come to a compromise.” You yelled out at Anakin again.
“You should listen to your friend.” The bounty hunter looked over the shoulder of the man whose blade was almost searing his neck and towards you. “I know a few fellas who would pay good money to see–”
“How dare you talk about them like that!” Anakin cried. “Cruel men like you don’t deserve the luxury of living.” The hunter smiled and slowly closed his eyes, acting like he was embracing the inevitable. Anakin nearly swung his blade down at the man before a gush of harsh winds blew both of you over, distracting Anakin in the process. A small ship had unexpectedly approached the building and lowered itself close to the balcony. As soon as Anakin’s blade fell away from the hunter’s neck, he pushed a button on his tool belt and a hook flew up and attached itself to the ship. Without delay, the ship escaped and along with it was the assassin.
“What the hell was that, Anakin?” You stated as you stumbled up as the ship flew away, but it was too late to do anything now. You looked over at your partner who was now arising from his fallen position when you heard him speak.
“He got away.” He muttered. He stood up and put his weapon away, turning his gaze to glare at you.
“You were about to kill him!”
“And he got away!” He repeated. It wasn’t easy to verbalise what you were thinking, so you figured there was no point in arguing with him.
“Let’s just… Head back to the council.”
“And tell them that we failed the mission?!”
“The mission would’ve failed even with his head cut off, Anakin.” You bit back. He didn’t say anything back, just heavily breathing with his chest rising and falling with rage. So, you took his silence as your cue to leave and not escalate anything further.
The ride back was more than painfully silent. Neither of you dared to speak, Anakin pretended like he barely acknowledged your presence. You did notice that on occasion throughout the flight, his knuckles would turn white with his grip on the controls. Spending a flight in dead silence, scared even to breathe too loudly, clearly left him in a world of his own thoughts that angered him to the point of taking it out on the poor handles of the ship.
The council was more than understanding of the bounty hunter’s escape because of your willingness to attempt negotiation, rather than resort to death. On the other hand, explaining to the council about Anakin nearly murdering a weaponless man was more than difficult. It didn’t feel fair to rat out Anakin like that, but the masters would’ve managed to get the truth from you even if you simply left it at “he escaped.”
As you were returning to your quarters, you ran into the last person you wanted to see. You kept your head low as you passed him but stood dead in your tracks when he spoke.
“I know what you told them.” He said.
“What?”
“To the council. That is was my fault the bounty hunter escaped.”
“Anakin, it was not your fault.” You approached him, but he took an equal number of steps away from you.
“You know what? You’re right,” then he began to close in on the gap between you, just to jab a finger into your sternum. “It’s yours. ” He loomed over you, displaying as much intimidation as he could. “Because of you, we might actually end up losing a senator’s life this time.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” You gave him a shove, but he was so solid and rigid that it was you that stumbled back at the recoil. “With him alive, we might actually end up being able to capture him, interrogate him, and find more of his affiliates.”
“He was right there! If you didn’t try and stop me then I wouldn’t have hesitated and we wouldn’t be having this issue.”
“I’m just doing what’s right.”
“Maybe that’s the problem, then. You put your emotions–what you believe ‘is right’–above the task at hand, putting the mission in jeopardy.”
“Unbelievable.” You muttered. You tried to turn around to walk away from him and this conversation but Anakin quickly grabbed your arm to drag you back to the exchange.
“Your pacifism will be your undoing. Maybe you’re not ready to be a Jedi, yet.” He said with stone-cold seriousness. You harshly pulled yourself from his grip when you felt the tears begin to well in your eyes. He never looked away once as he told you that and by the end of it, he caught the glossiness of your eyes before you pulled away from him.
“You’re such an asshole.” You spat at him before continuing back on your original path to your room. He could hear and see your lips tremble when you spoke– that’s when he knew he made a mistake. His shoulders relaxed, but he could only feel regretful as he watched you walk away, head down in defeat and arms wrapped around yourself.
Isolation was the thing you needed. Somewhere private where you could ball your eyes out because the one man you admired told you that you weren’t worthy enough to be the one thing you spent your life devoted to. There was no worse feeling than disappointment from your superiors. So, all you needed to do was sit and cry in your bedroom and wait until the feeling had passed.
A knock was heard at your door, but by the time you looked at the door, it was already being opened. There stepped in Anakin, the one who left you in your current state. He looked as though he had been crying as well, not to your extent but his cheeks did look a little wet. Your suspicions were true when his hand wiped away the wetness on his cheek.
“I’ve come to apologise.” He said.
“Get out.” You quickly retaliated.
“If you would only hear me out–”
“I said get out.” Then he started to approach you.
“I’m sorry. For what I said I–”
“No, you were right, I see that now. I’ll never equate to anything good of a Jedi if I think with my heart instead my head. I let him escape and now we risk a senator’s life again because of me.” All he could do was shake his head at your words that spilled from your mouth, shaken with anguish. He knelt down to your seated position so you now looked down at him.
“No, no, no. I was wrong, so very wrong. There is no right or wrong, but what you did was more courageous than what I did.” He rested his arms on your legs, positioned between your legs and you could see how truly hurt he felt.
His eyes were pink, but they falter eye contact with yours to convey his truthfulness to the fullest extent. “With him gone, it gives us another chance to try again and learn from our failure, me especially.”
“Anakin–”
“No, hear me first.” So you let him. “It is I who let my emotions take over my thoughts. You should’ve heard the vile things that came from his mouth about you before you came, it would drive any man to murder.” He smiled gently, nearly letting out a laugh. “You ran in and never forgot who you were, remaining resilient with your persistence to come to a compromise. That is the way of the Jedi. You’re a far better Jedi than I will ever be.”
A tear fell from his eye when he blinked. He felt it roll down his cheek and he lowered his head to hide the vulnerability, but you caught the sight. Your hand reached out to cup his face and he instantly melted into your touch. He became clay in your hand, so you lifted up his head so he could face you again and with your thumb, you wiped away the stray tear.
“Anakin, you don’t have to say that.”
“But I do. Seeing you walk away like that I… I never want to be the reason that you cry.” His voice grew shaky and his head dropped to your lap where he sobbed apologies into your robes. “I’m sorry, please, please forgive me.” He would beg. You ran a hand through his hair and let him cry into you. It was heartwarming to see the strong man you always adored to be at his most vulnerable in your presence. You must’ve meant a great deal to him for him to act like this.
“I forgive you, Anakin.” His sobs quietened down and he slowly raised his head to look at you. With his cheeks properly wet and the spot of tears formed on your robes was enough to know how broken he was.
“You mean that?” He looked up at you and you nodded. Looking at him made your heart shatter, a single word and you might’ve broken down and been in the same state as the man before you.
At your trembling smile, he reached and hand around the back of your head and pulled you into his face, crashing your lips against his. It took you by surprise, but his desperate kiss was welcomed. When he pulled away he said, “you keep me in line, I wouldn’t know who I would become without someone like you. I love you.”
His mistake was the revelation he needed to finally come clean and confess himself to you. Having the handsome Jedi knight express his equal adoration for you was gratifying and you quickly forgot exactly what made you mad at him in the first place– his lips on yours were enough to keep you distracted.