Biting into his apple, Anakin watched boredly as the rest of the diplomats mingled, settled against the balcony rail with Ahsoka cheerfully hanging upside down beside him as the tiefling used her tail to hang from the rail while scaring some of the elven ladies on the benches below.

Well that was the intent Anakin thought, considering she had grabbed a bunch of grapes and seemed to be waiting on the best opportunity to throw, her maroon outfit coupled with the pants preserving her decency.

He cheered up a bit as he was joined by Padme, the river nymph diplomat. “Anakin!” She greeted happily as he swallowed quickly and wiped the back of his mouth with his sleeve, trying not to stare at her too obviously while also ignoring what his mother would say if she knew he had wiped his mouth on his new blue tunic.

But it was kind of difficult not to look at nymphs when they insisted to be dressed, and he used that term very lightly, in only vines and flowers from their respective domains. Though Padme was very beautiful in red poppies and a yellow one he thought was called sun flare, very dramatic which suited her.

Grasping her hands in greeting and leaning in to peck her on the cheek, Anakin beamed in return. “Padme, it’s been too long!” He greeted.

Laughing, Padme playfully slapped him at the chest, which he of course had to play wounded at. “You saw me yesterday at the gathering ball! I’m still surprised you’re here.” Padme teased lightly.

Grimacing, Anakin shrugged. “Mother insisted, as our representative for the decade, she said she didn’t like the idea of me staying behind when I could use this opportunity to learn.” He grumbled faintly.

Still laughing, Padme leaned over the rail to greet Ahsoka.

Which left Anakin to eye up her bottom while she was chatting with the tiefling.

Hey, they broke up but Anakin still had a pulse damn it.

‘To bad it didn’t work out but… I guess that’s for the best.’ He thought sadly to himself.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t loved each other but… well, Shmi serious face as she gently pulled her boy aside to explain the darkness in the future for them should they continue had Anakin hesitating and also mulling on his own nature.

He knew that he could be possessive and maybe Padme had been to quick to agree with him…

A painful bloody night came to mind and Anakin tossed his apple core out into the garden while trying to shake the memory of his mind while trying not to seek refuge in Padme’s soft words of forgiveness.

What Anakin had done that night had been unforgivable, he had murdered and Padme…

Well, Shmi had not so easily let it go and had made Anakin see that despite how lovely Padme’s behavior was, it was also the sign of bad things to come should they continue.

‘Doesn’t stop me from loving her still…’ Anakin’s eyes lingered on her before shaking himself to focus on the conversation.

“I heard the dwarf representative finally arrived in the early morning.” Ahsoka pulled herself up, clearly more interested in speaking with Padme than scaring the elf ladies below.

Letting out a thoughtful noise, Padme tapped her chin. “Oh that’s right, old Broadbeam suddenly fell ill yes? They had to bring in another representative and that’s why they weren’t here yesterday at the gathering ball?”

Wrinkling his nose, Anakin rolled his eyes. “Right, great, another old dwarf who hates elves. How fun.” He grumbled, leaning away when Padme slapped her hand in his direction.

“Oh come on Ani, dwarves aren’t as bad as you make them out to be, Broadbeam isn’t all dwarves you know.” She teased.

“Smelly, talks about mining all the time, burps, wants to only eat meat,” Anakin ticked off on his fingers and ignored Ahsoka’s little outraged pout at the only eating meat part. “Stuffy, talks about my ‘low’ quality daggers and sword, tries to pick a fight every time I’m trying to train, tries to stomp on my feet all the ti-me…” He trailed off, blinking at the entrance to the negotiation Halls with clear surprise on his face.

“Anakin?” Padme stared up at him before turning to look in the direction he was, curious as to what had the others attention caught so tightly.

A contingent of dwarves had entered but it was the one in the front that had Anakin’s attention clearly.

The new ambassador was not an old stuffy dwarf, he was young, copper colored hair and beard all gathered and groomed.

His hair was all gathered to the middle of his head to be braided to lay down his upper back with his beard having two small warrior braids with golden and gem beads, he wore the royal blue with traditional golden knot designs at the hems and sleeve with a belt and knee high black boots and to top it all off, a warm, black fur cape that he was pulling off while laughing with his companion.

Glancing at her elven friend, Padme felt her lips twitch into a smile. “What was that about stuffy old dwarves?” She teased.

Coloring, Anakin rubbed the back of his neck. “Shut up, he could still be stuffy for all we know.” He stammered out, pausing as the dwarven ambassador suddenly let out a loud, happy laugh, green eyes twinkling.

Anakin couldn’t help but notice that outside of the decoration on his shirt and what was in the others hair, there weren’t really many decorations on the dwarf… and yet he made himself seem very important by simply smiling. ‘…Who are you?’ He wondered, intrigued.