I was jolted awake by the door swinging open. It was early evening, I propped up onto my elbows to see who had come into my room.

"Master Ani, be careful not to wake her please, she does need her rest after being in recovery for so long-" I heard C-3PO in the other room.

"It's okay, 3PO, I'm awake." I told him. He walked away, muttering how unhelpful he had been.

But I saw him. His beautiful blue eyes made my heart quicken its pace. His hair had gotten longer, he had a new mechanical hand, and a scar over his right eye. He wasn't dressed in his Jedi robes anymore, but in battle armor.

"Anakin.." I muttered. He said nothing, instead he walked purposefully over to me. He wasted no time in grabbing my face and smashing his lips against mine.

He kissed me so passionately. Keeping his hands delicate. In this kiss was everything he wanted to say to me: I missed you so much, I'm sorry I wasn't the first face you saw when you woke up. I missed you.

I relished in the feeling of his lips. I put a hand in the new length of his hair, it wasn't too much longer, but enough to be noticeable. It also looked a bit darker. I loved it. His hands delicately traced my elbows, to my back then pulling me up to sit up so I could be more level to him.

"I missed you." He said, breathless as he put his forehead to mine. Then he kissed my forehead and sat down at the chair by my bed, holding my hand. "I came back as soon as I heard you were awake."

"I missed you, too." I smiled. It was a weird feeling. So much had changed, yet nothing had at the same time. "You decided to grow out your hair?" I tugged on the little strands.

"I decided to follow your advice." He flipped it away from his face.

"It looks even better than I thought." I smiled. "Thank you for my braid, by the way."

"You like it?" He chuckled, picking it up from behind my ear. "You earned it."

"Thank you." I said. I have never been so happy. Everything was just how I wanted it to be.

Master Windu training me, Padmè was alive and well, and Anakin at my side.

"How've you been General Skywalker?" I asked, teasing him of his new title.

"Being a Knight is hard." He said simply.

"Is that how you got this?" I asked, touching the scar over his eye.

"Asajj Ventress." Anakin rolled his eyes, "Count Dooku's apprentice."

"Oh great. Two of them." I said, sarcasm dripping in my words, "She sounds like a pain."

"She is. She's quite a duelist. A hard one to beat, but I'm better, so don't worry." He smiled, taking my fingers away from his eyebrow back to his hand.

"I wouldn't expect it to be easy." I laughed. "How'd you manage to pull that off? Get knighted so soon?"

"With all the fighting in the war, and the shortage of Knights, they decided that I'd proved myself worthy without the trials." He explained, my eyes widened.

"No trials?!" I exclaimed.

"You heard me." He had a smug look on his face.

"Anakin! That's incredible. That's making Jedi history! I'm so proud of you." I gave him a hug.

"You wanna know the best part?" He said excitedly, sitting up closer to me.

"What?" I said, mimicing his actions.

"No awkward padawan braid to maintain." He says, pulling on my braid. I pushed him back laughing. He's always known how to make me laugh.

"It's been different with you not out there with me." He said. "I got so used to having you by my side. Obi-Wan isn't as pretty of a sight for me either." He released me from my hug. But all I wanted to do was stay in his arms.

"I'll be back out there in no time." I assured him. But I could sense the conflict within him when I said that. He stared at our hands instead of me.

"You're conflicted?" I asked. He didn't answer me. "Hey," I tipped his chin up to look at me, "Anakin, talk to me."

"I'm glad you're back." He said, "But it'll be hard to keep you safe when we're out there, together. There's been so much death on both sides of this war. I've lost so many of my men. Just in the couple of months we've been out there it's been difficult to make sure no one is left behind. During this war it'll even be rare we'll be fighting in the same area."

"I can take care of myself, Anakin." I assured him, "That might be true, that we'll rarely see each other, but there's nothing we can do about that. The council saw how well we fight together and that is all we can do."

"I know but-" he started but stopped himself.

"But what?" I asked. He seemed so different from only moments before.

"Forget it." He sighed. Squeezing onto my hand, "This shouldn't be the conversation you have when you first wake up."

"I don't need to be babied into reality." I said.

"I know you don't." He looked at me, running a hand over my scar. I forgot it was there, I was so excited to see him I forgot about myself. I suddenly felt self conscious. Turning my head away from him.

"You look beautiful." He whispered. Even though he'd told me this before, I still didn't know how to react. I gave him a weak smile.

He leaned in and kissed along the long scar. From my cheekbone to my jaw.

"You do believe me, don't you?" He whispered in my ear.

"Believe what?" I asked, postponing my answer.

"That these feelings of love I have for you aren't short lived. Every day for 3 months I waited here for you to wake up." He said, "I started losing hope you'd ever wake up. At first the council wouldn't tell me answers about how you were. I may or may not have blown up about how they treated you. It wasn't right. Master Windu also went to bat for you to the council. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't overlook you anymore once you awoke. You deserved so much better.. And I love my squad. But I got so upset when they started giving me missions. It meant I wouldn't see you anymore." He explained.

"But duty always comes first. Thank you for everything you've done for me. You're here now, that's all that matters." I said, knowing. We both knew of this risk we were taking. By making duty our first priority was the only way it could work. "Speaking of duty, how are the Twi'lek?" I asked. Changing the subject as far away from the sad inevitable fate of our relationship.

"Why won't you say you love me?" He asked suddenly. I was taken aback by the question.

"What are you talking about?" I let go of his hands. But I knew what he was talking about.

"I've always known that I love you. I've told you multiple times. I do all I can to prove it to you. But almost every time you reject it. And I know you feel this way, (Y/N). Why won't you let me in?" He was so frustrated. But it made me frustrated.

"I've told you why. Im not easy to trust people. I trust the force binds us together somehow. I don't take saying the words 'I love you' lightly. My brother would say them, and he never meant them. I want to be as far unlike my brother as possible. I want you to know that when I do say it, I mean it on my life." I stood up, I walked away from him to the window. I was frustrated and I didn't know why, "Those nights we spent talking together, I loved that, it was the best parts of my life before. Getting into sticky situations with you, as annoying as it was, I loved that, too. I trust you more than anyone I've ever met. There are so many things about you that I love. Your kindness to me, your need to help those in trouble, your skills as a warrior, the way you talk, your humor, your smile, your eyes, your presence..." He put a hand on my shoulder. He turned me around to look at him.

"I'm sorry I doubted you." He said. My arms were crossed so I relaxed them. He kissed

my forehead then hugged me close to his chest. "I know this is hard for you. I'm sorry. I'll be more patient with you, I shouldn't have sprung this on you."

"Thank you for understanding." I know why he backed off. It's because I've told him I loved him now. I gave him the guarantee without having to utter the words. I went about it differently, I couldn't stop myself. But thinking about it made me remember something he said to me back on Geonosis.

"Can I ask you about something?" I asked, rubbing his arms, he held my waist as I backed my head away to look at his face.

"Anything, my love." He smiled at me.

"You said you were on the ship that took rescued me when I was young? How is that possible?" I asked him.

"Well, um, you see.." He scratched the back of his head, "I wasn't exactly supposed to be there. But Obi-Wan was refusing to take me on missions at the time, I was so tired of the Temple and needed to go out. When I heard they were going on a mission to Alderaan, I decided I had to go. I remember seeing you fly your brother back, you had no training but you were so strong. And when you came on the ship I watched from my place in the vents as you talked to Windu. You were so kind despite what had happened to you. It was incredible. I was sold from that moment." I turned in his arms, facing him. I kissed him as my reaction. I felt my heart in my throat. I knew then he really meant it. In this moment I had no doubts of him.

"Obi-Wan never found you?" I asked.

"Oh he did, and he was pissed. He was the one to shove me in the vents, actually." He shrugged. I started laughing, I could imagine a young Obi-Wan whisper shouting at his little Padawan and shoving him into a vent at the sound of Master Windu's feet coming. "It was worth it." He said, holding me to his chest again. I could hear his heart beat, strong and slow.

"As pretty as you are when you're asleep, you're so much better to have awake." He put his chin on my head. Damn his 6' something" butt. Sometimes this boy frustrated me to no end, he's so lucky he's so cute.