A Path Less Taken

Chapter 23 - Nightly Discoveries

A/N: Brace yourself folks. I'm really gonna push the T rating in this one. And prepare for my, to say the least, extensive Author's Note at the end.

"Anakin..."

The last Skywalker awoke with a start, looking around his room quickly to observe if anyone was around him. No one. He finished looking around just before the sudden feeling of euphoria disappeared.

Anakin sat up and rubbed his eyes before looking at his clock. It was four twenty-seven in the morning. His sleep was dreamless other than that one whisper of his name. The voice was fairly faint and... strangely familiar. It was spoken in a low tone that sounded like she had a hard time squeezing the word out. That made it hard to tell who it was.

"I'd check the job list, but we didn't have time to get the laptop before we left. Which means the Separatists are going to have an easier time tracking us if we ever accept a job. We should be fine as far as money is concerned," Anakin thought before lying back down while facing the ceiling. He grunted in frustration when he found his eyes were unwilling to close.

"Oh, great. Just my luck," Anakin said aloud as he drew the covers off his shirtless form and went down to the kitchen. Something warm to drink would suit him just fine. Maybe bantha milk.

When he get downstairs, he wasn't expecting the light to be on. Sitting at the table was Ahsoka, sitting in a tank top and workout shorts. By the looks of how disheveled she looked, she woke up not too long ago as well. And she was holding a cup in her hand. She waved at Anakin when he approached.

"Can't sleep either?" Ahsoka asked, taking a sip from her mug.

"No," Anakin said, going to fridge to get out the bantha milk and grabbing a mug from the cabinet. He poured a decent amount before throwing it in the microwave.

"Dream about something?" Anakin asked as he waited for the small timer he set to go off.

"No. Nothing in particular," Ahsoka said, the tips of of lekku turning bright red. It would've been hard to notice even if Anakin wasn't occupied in the kitchen. It was still a dead giveaway to her embarrassment.

"Me neither. Just the sound of some woman saying my name. I know that sounds very suggestive, but I can't even begin to understand why. Because that one word was literally it," Anakin said as the microwave beeped. But he didn't notice Ahsoka almost take a spit take from the milk that was in her mouth. Now almost her entire lekku was red.

"Oh, really?" she said. Her voice was calm, but the lekku was a dead giveaway. It was more prominent than human blushing the more the embarrassment rose.

"I don't know who it was. Voice was too low for me to tell. It was weird, but strangely enough, not entirely unpleasant. It was a strange anomaly, but I can't help but feel there's more to it than that," Anakin said as he walked back to the table, forcing Ahsoka to make her lekku turn back to its normal color. "My dreams are never simple. They're always visions or some bullshit."

"Maybe this time may be different," Ahsoka said, hurriedly taking a drink out of her mug. She leaned against the wall to try and fall asleep right here. No effect, as she had seen that Anakin had taken a seat in front of her with his mug in hand.

"Probably," Anakin said, taking a drink of the milk and sighing. Then hiss gaze wandered from her bare feet, to her legs and all the way up. Ahsoka noticed and blushed bright red. "Interesting choice of sleepwear."

"It's comfortable," Ahsoka said, taking care to make sure her lekku was behind her head to avoid him noticing them growing red again. This night was not getting any less awkward for her.