Star Wars: A New Change

Chapter 40

The people of Korith Mazi were already planning on a celebration when Anakin was finally able to escape and go back to the hut.

He looked exhausted. I wonder if he slept at all while searching for the animal.

He took off his torn shirt and I gasped in horror when I saw his back. There were long claw marks running down his back. They had started to scab over but still looked pretty nasty.

"Are you okay? When did this happen?" I asked gently touching his back.

Anakin breathed in deeply. "It's fine. The beast caught me off guard a couple of days ago. It'll heal." he tried to dismiss it by putting a shirt on but I stopped him.

"Let me at least try to clean it first." I told him and he took his shirt back off.

I grabbed a towel and a bowl of water and carefully started cleaning his back.

"Tell me what happened. When did you find it?" I asked.

"I didn't find anything for the first couple of days, but I knew I couldn't give up. It had to live somewhere close by to the village for it to attack the people regularly. I just needed to find it's home. I had finally found where it lived when it came behind me. That's where the scratches are from. It broke both of my spears so I ended up having to use my surroundings and the force.

The beast put up a good fight. The whole time I was wishing I had my lightsaber. Our fight took place over a few days. I had to tire it out before I could defeat it. While it was sleeping one night, I was able to find a huge rock. I placed it above it's cave and waited for the perfect moment. The beast was tired from all of the fighting we had had the past couple of days, so it's reflexes weren't as fast anymore. As soon as he showed his head I used the force the bring down the rock. It killed it immediately." Anakin said.

"They are so grateful for you." I said gently squeezing his arm.

"I'm just glad it's over. I'm glad to be back, with you." Anakin said and I paused cleaning his wounds.

Anakin sensed my uneasiness, but took it the wrong way.

"I had a lot of time to think about what you've said in the past, about us, and you're right. It's probably a bad-"

"Anakin, I love you." I interrupted him quickly.

Now it was his turn to pause. "What did you say?" he asked in disbelief.

"I love you. I have loved you for quite some time now. I knew we couldn't be together so I couldn't let you know. Ever since you've been gone though, I've realized that I want to be with you. Who knows how long we'll be here, and even if we leave I want to be yours always." I said.

He turned around and stared at me. "You love me?"

"I do, and I'm tired of pretending I don't. I want to be with you Anakin. I want to be yours and I want you to be mine. You claim that I have your heart and now I'm telling you that you have mine." I stood up and started pacing nervously.

"What changed your mind?" Anakin asked, still in disbelief.

"When you left, I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. It was killing me knowing that you might have died and never known that I truly love you." I said quietly.

Anakin stood up and held onto my hands stopping me from pacing.

"I can't even begin to explain how happy I am right now." he said quietly placing a finger under my chin and forcing me to look up into his eyes.

"I love you so much. More than I could ever even begin to say." Anakin breathed before bringing our lips together in a sweet, slow kiss.

"This is a bad idea, but right now I don't care. Please don't make me regret this." I whispered before kissing him again.

"You won't regret it." Anakin promissed and kissed me again.

I felt weak and giddy at the same time. It felt like everything in me was jumping and rejoicing. How could I ever regret being with Anakin Skywalker?

"You don't know how long I've waited for this moment." Anakin kissed my jaw.

"Anakin." I breathed. I felt so peaceful now that he was here again. There was no going back now. I just hoped I wasn't dooming the Republic and Jedi by loving him.

He cradled my face in his hands and kissed me deeply and I kissed him back.

I wrapped my arms around him, already forgetting the claw marks on his back, until he winced slightly.

I broke apart. "Oh no! I'm sorry." I apologized quickly.

"Don't worry about it." Anakin said and tried to kiss me again, but I backed up.

"Anakin, as nice as this is, you need to rest. How much sleep have you gotten the past couple of days?" I asked him in concern.

"I've had plenty." he lied running a finger down a strand of my hair.

"Anakin, don't lie to me. Tell me the truth. How much?" I demanded.

He sighed. "I haven't slept in the past couple of days." he admitted.

"Exactly. Get some rest. We have plenty of time to talk about things more tomorrow." I told him.

"I will be looking forward to it. I just hope you won't change your mind tonight." he said.

I laughed and shook my head. "Unfortunately I won't."

"Can I have one last kiss goodnight?" he asked with a smile.

"Fine." I said and gave him a small sweet kiss. It was strange how comfortable I already was with kissing him. I had never kissed anyone before Anakin, but with him it felt so natural and right.

"Goodnight my angel." Anakin said caressing my face lovingly.

I blushed at the nickname. I remembered when he had asked me if I was an angel all of those years ago. The line was supposed to be said to Padme, but somehow I ended up being the lucky one.

"Goodnight, my hero." I whispered as he went to his side of the hut.

Things were definitely different now.