anchor | anakin skywalker

seven

this is a short chapter but low-key important

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WORD COUNT: 1.5K

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Obi-Wan shook his head in amusement as he watched the Medical Droid patch up the deep wound on Colbens arm, the young woman muttering curse words everytime the droid attempted to mend it back together.

"You always were one to complain a lot," he mused and crossed his arms, thinking back to when she was younger. 

"Me? Complain? Shall I remind you of the first time I had met you?" She asked him with a grin. "Poor Qui-Gon wanted to pull his ears off!" 

"How could you possibly remember that?" Obi-Wan scoffed. "You were only a youngling!"

Colben laughed and grabbed her hand, mimicking Obi-Wan's voice, "Master! Master! It's bleeding, my hand!" 

"Alright that's enough out of you," Obi-Wan said, yet he couldn't help but smile a little. He was a little amazed she was able to remember the incident that happened more than fifteen years ago.  "I will see myself out now, get some rest." 

Colben smiled at him and nodded, "Of course, Master Kenobi." She watched as Obi-Wan left, leaving her alone to wonder where Anakin was. 

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Inside the small Coruscant apartment, that Padmè ever so graciously lets Colben stay in, Colben herself was sat on the bathroom bench, watching Anakin attempt to cut his own hair in the mirror. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and the smile on her face was wide enough for Anakin to assume she was secretly making fun of him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked with a small laugh as he reached up and snipped another piece of hair off. She shook her head and laughed a little. "Tell me."

"No reason," she said and lent back on the mirror.

One week had passed from the Tatooine incident, and Colben had had many meetings with Council about what had happened, trying to find ways to prevent it from happening to any other Jedi. 

Both Colben and Anakin had a few days off, which was incredibly rare,  before they both had to go on missions, on opposite ends of the outer rims. They had no idea how long they could be gone for, but they knew it wasn't going to be just a short trip. The Clone Wars was coming to an end, things were getting serious.

"Anakin..." She said as she put her legs down and let Anakin stand between them, looking over her shoulder as he continued to cut his hair, quite horribly. "Give me the scissors."

Anakin rolled his eyes a little but handed them over. He staredbat her soft features as she focused on each strand of hair, gently placing the cut bits into the sink.

"What are you thinking about?" She mumbled to him and snipped another piece of hair.

The words fell out of his mouth before he could even process what he was going to say, "I love you."

She stopped what she was doing and tilted her head down to look him in the eye. Colben let go of the strand of hair between her fingers in complete shock

"Cole, I- I didn't think," Anakin said in regret as she placed the scissors down into the bench next to her, "that was stupid of me."

"Anakin," he said quietly as she watched him look down in embarrassment. "I love you, too." His head snapped up to look at her.

"You do?" He asked and grabbed her hand and held it to his chest, whilst his metal hand gently travelling up and down her arm.

"Of course. You know, those days I spent locked up, I could only think about whether you were safe or not. If you were alive. I realised I don't want to be without you. You're the only person to care about me in a way that it doesn't seem obligatory or feigned," she spoke from the heart, a thing she rarely ever did, and Anakin knew she was sincere.