Snips and Skyguy: Return of the One Shots

Shaken

request from @Elijah267 (welcome back to ash's tags don't work 😒)

‼️TW FOR MENTIONS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT‼️ (nothing explicit)

Never—never—in a million years had he been expecting to have this conversation. Especially with her.

"I'm sorry," Ahsoka whispered, flinching when Anakin opened an arm out to her.

He swallowed hard, pulling back.

"No," he told her firmly. "You have nothing to apologize for."

She shook her head, curling her knees up into her chest so she could bury her tear-streaked face in them.

He squeezed his eyes shut as soon as he knew that he was out of her sight; his heart was breaking for her. It had been since she stumbled into his quarters that afternoon, lower lip trembling.

All he wanted to do was hold her as tightly as he possibly could, and only let go to murder the men that had damaged her mind so badly.

He reached for her hand when she looked back up, letting his palm hover above hers.

"This okay?" he asked softly.

A nod.

"Just tell me if it's too much."

Another.

"Can you tell me exactly what happened?" he whispered.

No.

"That's alright," he continued in response to the shake of her head, quietly in a voice that he would usually reserve for a small child.

Then again, he thought, isn't that exactly what she is?

"Are you hurt?" he tried, "... physically?" he added, already knowing the answer to mentally.

Mentally, he knew, she was destroyed.

"Just... bruised," she hiccuped, still shaking. "On the ribs. One... of them kicked... me."

Anakin clenched his free fist, shoving his fury to the back of his mind in order to focus on what Ahsoka needed right now.

"Can I check?" he said slowly, already knowing what her answer was going to be.

She began to shake her head, pausing when she came to some sort of realization.

"W-will someone else have to if you don't?"

Anakin sighed, nodding sympathetically.

Slowly, slowly, she stretched her legs out, away from where they were covering her injuries, one at a time.

She curled her fingers around the hem of her top, shivering as she rolled it up. Her eyes remained locked on Anakin's the entire time, and his heart broke yet again as it dawned on him that she didn't trust him.

Though, he supposed that she had good reason for that right now.

"I would never hurt you," he swore softly.

"I know," was her tearful reply.

She pulled the shirt up just a few inches, allowing her master to see only the lower portion of the dark bruise that had stained her side, clearly in the partial shape of a boot.

"Can I put bacta on it? Or would you like to do it yourself?"

She coughed out another tiny sob, squeezing his hand.

I don't want to let go.

"That's okay," he whispered, squeezing back.

He pulled a small bottle of the ointment out of one of his pockets, certain that if she wasn't so worked up right now, Ahsoka would've joked about him turning into Obi-Wan, being so prepared and all.

He pulled the lid off with his teeth, reaching forward to apply a generous amount to her ribs.

She jumped slightly from it's cool temperature, and visibly flinched when he put the bottle down and moved his gloved fingers nearer to begin to spread it.

"Not yet?" he asked. "We can work up to it, it's o—"

"No," she said in a soft voice, sounding too young to fit the soldier that she had become.

"No?"

"Go ahead, I... I can't be—I'm not afraid of you."

Anakin nodded slowly.

"I can't lose you," she continued, her voice cracking.

"Hey—you aren't going to lose me, okay? I'm going to be right by your side through this whole thing, I promise."

The task of forcing words up through her tight throat proved to be far too difficult at the moment, so she just squeezed his hand tightly again, holding herself very still while Anakin lightly brushed his fingers along her skin, until the angry, purple mark was finally covered.

He knew that it traveled even further up her side. He also knew that she wasn't ready for that.

That was okay.

She let her shirt fall back down, wrapping her hand around the thin bottom of her right lek.

They sat in silence for a few moments before she finally spoke.

"I wish that you could hug me."

Anakin bit down on his tongue, desperately attempting to hold it together.

(He decided that he failed as soon as he let a single tear slip down his cheek.)

"Me too, Snips," he answered, clearing his throat. He wished that more than anything right now. "We'll get there."

She closed her eyes, breathing deeply for a few moments, and continuing to do so as she wrapped her free hand around the one of Anakin's that she was already holding.

He let her lift his arm slowly, and crawl closer to him, suddenly very focused on the end of his sleeve.

She placed his hand on her shoulder, fully crying once again.

"Okay?" Anakin questioned, unable to hide his tears for any longer.

"Mhm." Ahsoka nodded, her face scrunched up as she scooted even nearer.

"Tell me when to stop," Anakin spoke softly.

He moved his arm around her at a snail's pace, ready to pull away the second that she requested it.

As it turned out, she never did, quite literally throwing herself against him just a few moments later.

He caught her easily, one hand around her shoulders, the other around her head where it was hidden in his ribs.

He let her cry against him until the spot on his robes beneath her face was soaked all the way through.

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?" he asked breathily.

He would kill them.

"They just... one held me... by-by the shoulders... against him... and the other... told me what he wanted to do," she sobbed. "I couldn't move, I'm sorry, Master—"

"Anakin."

"—Anakin," she fixed, sounding the slightest bit relieved at the sound of her brother's name, rather than his title.

"And you have nothing to be sorry for, little one," he whispered. "You didn't deserve any of this. No one does," he cried softly along with her.

Ahsoka just buried herself further against him.

"And it's going to be okay," he promised, voice hardly even audible. "It'll be okay."

i wrote this while sitting in a tree, eating goldfish, and getting attacked by mosquitoes✌️

hope you enjoyed, leave requests if ya have any, and have a great night!