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Padmé swallowed hard as she entered her apartment, seeing the figure slumped over on her couch. It had been a particularly hard day in the Senate. No one seemed to even dream of coming to a consensus, just bickering.
The buttons from his robe were all tangled up in Anakin’s hair. The lighting from Coruscant’s night sky was washing him out. Anakin would never admit it but he was scared, scared of living in a world where he knew that he failed his padawan.
That was the first time he was there in Padmé’s apartment, crying.
“Ani?” The Naboo senator sat down next to her husband.
“Hm?”
She sighed, combing through his unruly hair, “What happened?”
“She’s gone.”
Padmé raised an eyebrow, “Who? Who’s gone?”
Anakin took a deep breath before responding, “Ahsoka.”
“What?” Padmé gasped. “But- but at the Senate trial, she was found not guilty.”
She could feel him shrug, “Ahsoka said that if the Order can’t trust her, how could she trust herself?”
Desperate people find faith, Padmé thought.
“Maybe,” the former queen started. “Maybe she’ll come back, like she needed some space to clear her mind before coming back.”
“I know delusion when I see it in the mirror,” he muttered.
Padmé scoffed, “Sometimes, you have to make the best out of a bad deal.”
“Why did she have to leave?” Anakin finally looked up, his voice cracking as his eyes welled up with tears.
“I don’t know, Ani,” she frowned.
“And I-,” he sniffled. “I hate to make this all about me, but who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do if Ahsoka is gone?”
“I’m still here,” Padmé replied. “And so is Obi-Wan and Rex.”
“It’s not the same.”
The senator sighed, “I know.”