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After the fourth time she failed to comprehend the paragraph she had been reading, Satine discarded her holopad and crashed on her couch. She quickly got rid of her shoes and stretched her legs over the pillows, realizing it was the first time today that she actually had a moment to relax.
It had been a busy day for sure. She was always busy when she traveled to Coruscant, as she had to manage both her senatorial speeches, often followed by long meetings full of endless negotiations, and her duties as duchess which were far more difficult to attend to remotely.
She was supposed to spend the evening reading through a plan that a member of her government had suggested -a rather useless one at that- but she had gotten so tired and bored that she could no longer make sense of what she was reading.
She was contemplating taking a quick nap on the couch when the bell rang. She was on her feet in a moment, knowing fully well who her visitor was. As she opened the door, she was greeted by a handsome familiar face.
“Good evening, cyare”, Obi-Wan spoke as he stepped through her apartment.
She pressed a quick kiss on his lips, assured that there would be time for more later, and turned her attention to the transparent bag that Obi-Wan was holding. Inside, there were two containers that smelled lovely.
“Dinner?”, she inquired.
He nodded, then added “from that supposedly traditional Mandalorian restaurant I told you about. You get to be the judge of how traditional it really is.”
She laughed and thanked him as the two walked to the living room, where they preferred to eat rather than the dining room. It was simply more cozy to cuddle on the couch and watch a holofilm.
“So, what did you get us?”, Satine asked, peering into the bag. Obi-Wan passed her one of the containers.
“For you, since you always claim that spicy foods don’t affect you, I got you tiingilar ”
“Oh, are you trying to kill me, Obi?”, she laughed. “Tiingilar is too hot even for me. I’m assuming you got something much milder for yourself?”
“Gi dumpling soup”, he confirmed.
Satine folded her legs beneath her and decided that, no matter how hot the food was, she would devour the whole thing. Not only because she was ravenous, but because Obi-Wan’s comment about her spice tolerance had sounded a lot like a challenge, and she’d never refuse his challenges.
She was almost disappointed when the first bite didn’t burn her tongue. Neither did the second one.
“Not traditional”, she declared. “It doesn’t burn at all.”
Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at that, assessing whether she was lying so as not to wound her own pride.
“Let me see”, he said, but instead of trying her food, he went for her mouth, catching her by surprise with a deep kiss. Before she could savor his tongue in her mouth, he had pulled back, now licking his own lips.
“It does burn a little”, he decided. “Not as much as real tiingilar though. I couldn’t kiss you for a whole day the last time you ate that.”
Satine threw her head back with a laugh at the memory.
“I still believe you only pretended you couldn’t kiss my lips because you wanted to drive me mad. And as an excuse to kiss every other part of me”
“I will neither confirm nor deny that”, Obi-Wan said, pressing a kiss on her forehead before returning to his soup.
•———•———•
Long after they had moved to her bedroom and their clothes had been discarded, she lay in his arms as he rubbed circles on her midriff.
Satine realized, somewhat ashamed, that she still hadn’t asked him how his day had been, even though they had discussed her own in detail after dinner.
“Tell me about your day”, she whispered, turning to her side so she could have a better view of him in the dim light.
“Nothing too interesting”, he said with a shrug. “The Jedi council had a meeting, it was all about the casualties of the war and the losses in the outer rim. I’d rather not discuss that, definitely not right now. This moment is too nice to talk about the war.”
“Oh, on that I agree”, Satine said as she turned once more, so that she was now resting on top of him with their fronts pressed together. It hurt her chest a little, being squeezed like that against his body, but she didn’t mind. “What would you rather talk about?”
Obi-Wan seemed to consider that for a long moment. He raised his hand and began caressing the skin of her back, lingering at the few points where he had memorized her scars, though she had far less that he did.
“Actually, there is something I want to talk about”, he spoke at last. “It might ruin the moment, but I have to know.”
Satine held her breath as she waited, fairly certain of what he would ask.
“All those years ago…”, he started, “why didn’t you ask me to stay?”
As she had expected. She knew him to well, Satine mused.
“Because I loved you”, was all she said at first. And when he remained quiet, she rested her head on his chest and continued to talk. “How could I ask you to stay, Obi? You had told me so many times of your dreams of becoming a Jedi, your aspirations and your hope that you would one day be a great Jedi master, just like you are now. Your whole life was the Jedi, and I couldn’t keep you from your future. I couldn’t ask you to give up all that… for me.”
“Oh, Satine”, he whispered, pressing a kiss on her forehead. “Look at me.”
She met his gaze in the dark, the glint of his eyes making it impossible to look away.
“I would have chosen you over the Jedi order every time, I was ready to leave it all behind and stay with you. Yes, it wouldn’t have been an easy sacrifice, but I had made my decision. I was only waiting for your word, to stay.”
She felt her eyes gloss with tears, but she refused to cry. Not when she wasn’t finished talking.
“We were young, and foolish, and in love. You might have chosen me over the Jedi at nineteen, Obi, but who’s to say you wouldn’t regret it later?”
He tried to protest, but Satine didn’t stop longer than to take a breath. She knew that if she took a break now, her tears would fall, and she’d be helpless to stop them.
“When you’d realize that all your years of training had been for nothing, or when you’d decide that this life wasn’t for you -as you had told me, you never liked politics- or when you’d hear news of Qui-Gon’s death, or when your love faded, how can you know you wouldn’t regret me? You can’t-”
Obi-Wan silenced her with a kiss, soft but deep, as he wiped her cheeks from the tears that had inevitably fallen.
“Don’t ever say such nonsense again, cyare”, he whispered when he pulled back. “Satine, listen to me. I could never regret you. Never. I love you, I always have, since the day you first rolled your eyes at me when I called you a princess instead of duchess. Do you remember that?”
“Of course”, Satine laughed through the tears. “How could I forget? You kept purposely getting my title wrong for months just to piss me off.”
Obi-Wan caressed her cheek, leaning in to kiss some of the tears.
“You would get all red when you were angry, and calling you the wrong title was one of the easiest ways to achieve that. You looked cute with your cheeks flushed and your brows furrowed. Of course, I gave up on that game when I found a far easier way to make you blush.”
This time, Satine was the one who leaned in for a kiss, more passionate than their previous ones. She let her arms rest on the sides of his head, practically enveloping him.
“I love you”, she whispered in the dark.
“So do I, love”, he breathed in her ear. He embraced her, turning both of them to the side as he placed her back on the mattress and rested his hand across her waist. “Don’t you ever forget how much I love you, Satine.”