Promise - Anakin Skywalker

.26

Ella smiled brightly at the new droid that rolled over to her, trying to be nice. In the freighter's headlights it's gold paint job glittered like the real metal. Knowing the respect people had for Anakin, it probably was gold. It's name was R3-S6. It just didn't feel right saying R3 to her, and she was sure Anakin would feel worse about it.

Sure enough, he was. "The hell is that," he seethed as soon as he caught sight of the replacement droid.

"R3-S6! Your new droid," Ella said, even though Anakin really didn't care. "At least we have one more thing to help us find R2!" She said, trying to be optimistic about things. This happened frequently - Anakin being angry or annoyed and Ella attempting to cheer him up. She hoped he knew he was lucky to have her around.

She followed him into the cockpit, slumping into the copilot seat. R3 rolled right up to the outlet and plugged into it. It felt so different not having R2 next to her.

"Alright R2 prep the-" Anakin stopped himself, shutting his eyes and sighing. "R3, prep the engines."

The droid whistled back to them and began twisting the outlet. Suddenly, the ship lurched forward at full speed glueing both of them to their seats from the force that accelerated the ship. Right before they smashed head on into another ship Anakin seized the controls and merged sharply into a free space.

As they narrowly made it out of the hangar, Ella rapidly hit a number of controls, trying to slow down the ship manually. The debris from yesterday's battle was packed up in front of them and approaching quickly. Finally, she slammed a button and the ship came to a screeching stop.

"Ella!" Anakin yelled.

"What?!" Ella shouted back, "It was the droid!"

He whipped his head back so sharply the entire seat creaked. "Get it together, R3!" he hissed.

After he turned around and began to maneuver through the debris field, the ship was silent. She could feel some sort of tension in the air. Usually there was a lot to talk about, and talking was no doubt easy for them, but not today.

"Ella," Anakin blurted out abruptly, "we need to talk about attachments."

Oh great, she internally complained. "Okay," she said hesitantly.

"As Obi Wan said earlier-"

"- Attachments aren't acceptable for a Jedi, I know," she interrupted him sharply. Right after saying it, she began to feel uncomfortable and plain embarrassed. This was about the hand holding and sleeping by him. She knew it.

In the moment she really didn't think it was a big deal, but now it felt like a huge problem. She'd probably ruined it, and now they'd just be strictly Master and Padawan. Long flights would be silent, missions would be boring. Whatever relationship they had, she loved and was terrified she'd ruined it.

He could sense her distress, she knew that for sure. They could sense each other's emotions through the Force and maybe it wasn't supposed to be that way.

"Check the scanners for R2," he said normally as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb on her.

"Okay," she replied blankly. Silently, she watched the scanners. There was no sign of R2 as she checked the entirety of the debris field.

"Why are you being weird all of a sudden?" He asked suddenly.

Ella glared up at him from where she sat. "Who are you to tell me no attachments when you have plenty yourself?" She asked fiercely.