Six years after the Battle of Naboo, and only yesterday she was still the queen. The new sovereign, Queen Jamillia, had elected her senator, for which Padme was grateful. She had planned for this day, looked forward to the new found freedom she could have as a representative in the senate. But losing her crown, even though her successor was equally up to the task was still bittersweet. She left immediately for Coruscant to begin settling into her new position and re-introduce herself to the Galactic Senate as Senator Padme Amidala, former Queen of Naboo.

In the six years after that day, Padme had seen Obi Wan Kenobi on multiple occasions. Eight, that she could count. He occasionally visited Naboo for security detail, or they would encounter one another when she would have political business on Coruscant. They always greeted one another as friends, and she never forgot how grateful she was for the young Jedi and his master for helping them towards victory when Naboo was at its most vulnerable.

And who should be on the landing platform when she emerged from her ship?

Obi Wan Kenobi.

He stood with Chancellor Palpatine, and a few other delegates in the official welcome party, but the young Jedi had caught her eye immediately and they exchanged warm smiles. His smile, admittedly, was a little more muted. Typical Jedi.

She was unable to greet him first, as the Chancellor did most of the talking, and she did not care for her own guards to think that she had special favoritism. She did have a bias for Obi Wan, however. She was just a girl when they first met, he was a young man still a little hot headed but the perfect padawan. She always had immense respect for him, and maybe, when she was still a teenager of course, had a crush on him. Her handmaidens certainly did. They giggled when he left the room in a way that a queen was not permitted.

Now he was a man and only just beginning to grow out his beard, his hair getting longer behind his ears. It seemed to be an unspoken tradition of Jedi Masters to grow out beards and let their hair grow long (a tradition of the human variety, at least). The beard was still mere shadow of whiskers, and she found the look cut sharper angles into his jaw, made him look a little more rugged than perhaps was his intention. But there would always be the awkward in-between transition of growing out a beard, and she found that it made something flutter in her stomach.

Chancellor Palpatine invited her to a dinner and excused himself to return to Galactic business, and he paraded away with his train of people. Obi Wan stayed behind. Though he had already greeted her formally, he bowed to her again, this time with a hint of a smirk and a glimmer in his eye that made her smile more genuinely.

"Senator," he said.

"It's not necessary to bow anymore, Master Kenobi…. I'm not a queen."

"From a certain point of view, perhaps…"

That response baffled her, and she could only think to laugh and shake her head at him. "From the point of view of the Naboo government and the Galactic Republic… And my own. I only ever felt like a queen in title only… Where is Anakin?" She asked about the boy every time they met and the answer was usually more or less the same.

"He is in training with Master Yoda at the Jedi temple…"

"I hope I will be able to see him again soon. I can't imagine how he's changed since he was that boy on Tatooine."

Obi Wan chuckled. "You can imagine him much the same. Only taller."

They laughed together, the first genuine laugh she had had in awhile, and it was not even a great joke.

"I too must return to business…" he said, inhaling in what she anticipated to emerge as a sigh. But he restrained it.

"I hope I will see you again soon," she held her hand out to him.

He took it, and she thought perhaps his hand lingered longer than usual. Or did she imagine it? And then he walked away and out of her sight.

Obi Wan was at the Chancellor's dinner, seated across the vast hexagonal table from Padme, and sitting beside him was Master Mace Windu. They had been specially invited by the Chancellor for the event, as representatives for the Jedi Council. It was filled with Galactic delegates, all talking over each other. It was established that no one would talk shop, that any conversation of state should be kept private or saved for the council.

So, there were friendly debates about Droid rights, what holocroms were the latest or preferred for whatever business. When dinner was concluded and everyone was free to walk around with their drink of choice, Padme wandered and mingled, catching up with acquaintances, sharing strained civility with opposing factions, and eventually wending her way to where a few people gathered to interrogate the only two Jedi present.

She stood with her drink, watching how calm the two Jedi were with the barrage of boring or polarizing questions that came their way. She caught Obi Wan's eye—that is, he caught her staring at him. She turned her gaze immediately back to the debating delegates. She occasionally glanced back to him, and every time she did, Obi Wan happened to be glancing away too. The room was feeling warmer and warmer, maybe the drink was getting to her.

She politely excused herself to go out to the balcony. They were miles up in the Chancellor's building, spread out below was the sea of dazzling lights and dizzying heights, speeders in rows and flying droids in between. She didn't mind that this busy, cluttered world would be her other home. Her life would now be divided between two worlds, Coruscant and Naboo, and here she could finally work towards empowering democracy throughout the galaxy.

Yet, somehow as she thought about her role here as senator, she was thinking again about Obi Wan. She found herself wishing there were not so many people around to distract her from talking with her old friend.

"Are you alright, Senator?" his voice was behind her and she turned swiftly, chuckling at her own jumpiness.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you…"

"I didn't mean to startle you…" He stood beside her, looking out over the city, his hands concealed in the sleeves of his billowing cloak. Even after being accosted by all those politicians, he was as serene as ever, and alone, she realized, when she glanced over her shoulder.

"How ever did you manage to escape them?"

He smiled cryptically.

"Don't tell me you used your Jedi mind tricks to avoid social obligation…" she looked askance at him, playfully accusing him.

"Well…" he tipped his head. "There is a tried and true maneuver that all Jedi use when they require leave of themselves or others…"

She looked curiously at him and he held the light smirk.

"We say 'Jedi Business'."

She laughed, knowing full well that no one questioned those two words. "Then what is the Jedi business that brings you out in to the cold air?"

"Ensuring that milady is well. You left so suddenly, I thought…" he trailed off.

She shook her head, still smiling and placed a hand on his arm. "It was a long journey coming here and I think the travel has worn on me…"

He unfolded his arms, taking it out of her reach and even taking half a step away from her. Jedi were infamously aloof. Obi Wan had only ever been friendly and warm to her, that the small retraction from her cut deep. Her smile faded and she told herself she understood. They were friends, that did not mean it was acceptable to be overly familiar with the Jedi knight.

"I would be happy to escort you home, if you're ready to leave… I'm sure Chancellor Palpatine would understand."

He moved away, but offered himself as her chaperone. Jedi chivalry, nothing more.

"I do not wish to pull you from your own duties, Master Kenobi…"

He dipped his chin for a moment, then he nodded. "I understand. However, you misunderstand me… I would be honored if you would give me the opportunity to excuse myself from this obligatory party."

There it was again, that charming smirk of his, the dimples just barely visible beneath the whiskers. And she could not help smiling again. He played the part of a Jedi well, but Obi Wan had always had that charm about him where most Jedi seemed so dry.

At that moment Senator Hault-Botaff came swaggering in, his snood dangling with each step and his beady black eyes glimmering in the city light.

"Ah, Senator Padme…" his voice gurgled and his taloned fingers wriggled thoughtfully in her direction. "I hoped you would indulge me by listening to my theories of tariffs and tolls around certain planets in the outer rim—not Naboo of course… I merely wished to discuss the pros and the cons of such moves, I am not proposing one way or the other, these sorts of things are not currently under discussion in the council, as you know…"

He continued to talk she glanced to Obi Wan, seeing his face as stoic as ever as he patiently listened to the rambling politician.

"I would love to, Senator Hault-Botaff…" she interjected when he seemed to pause for breath. "However, I'm afraid I'm quite tired from my journey and would not be much insight in the conversation. Perhaps another time?"

"Oh… My apologies, Senator Padme, how thoughtless of me… Master Jedi, perhaps you would-"

Obi Wan graciously bowed. "I have little to offer in the way of politics, Senator. I am but a humble peacekeeper. And I feel responsible for chaperoning Senator Padme to her home."

"I understand…" and Senator Hault-Botaff grumbled his disappointment and waddled away to another vulnerable ear.

Padme led the way, seeing in her peripheral that Obi wan was following. She made her salutations to Chancellor Palpatine, and he made his excuses to Master Windu, and the two of them took the elevator to where her speeder waited.

They arrived at her apartment. It was still rather empty, decorated with generic sculptures, a small fountain near the window. It was far from lived in, but this was what she was used to. Her handmaiden lived her own quarters neighboring these. The lights detected her return home and faded on, spilling into the place in a blue light. She went to the panel on the wall, touching the buttons to change the colors of the lights from blue to yellow.

"I like the warmer lights…" she felt the need to explain herself. "Reminds me of Naboo…"

Obi Wan was lingering at the door, looking curiously around at her new living space, his hands once again concealed in his sleeves. Even in the yellow light his eyes were such a deep blue, his hair looking more gold than she realized it was. He smiled a little.

"Anakin has similar preferences… He still isn't very fond of the cold…"

She smiled, remembering how he shivered on the space ship when he left Tatooine for the first time. Her heart never did stop breaking for the boy, to be separated from his mother, to leave her behind in slavery. Padme had dreams of finding a way to abolish slavery throughout the Republic, to free those in servitude, but the task was too large and too complicated.

"I guess it takes more than six years to grow accustomed to a new life…" she said, distractedly looking to the window where the lights of Coruscant flashed through. Six years as Queen Amidala, and now it was over.

"You're unhappy…" he was approaching her, his voice gentle and understanding. "I've sensed it all through the night. You will be as successful as a senator as you were a queen, I have no doubt of it."

She managed a small smile and faced him. "I was relieved when my second term finally ended… I was eager to get back to my outreach work in the system, or focus on other issues in the council, but… it only just hit me that I'm no longer Queen Amidala and never will be again… I loved my people and the palace…"

Her throat felt tight, and her eyes stung, and against her will a single tear fell. She laughed self-consciously and quickly swiped it away.

"I'm sorry, it's silly to be sad… I'm no Jedi…"

His eyes never left her, never judged her. "There is no shame in having these feelings, Padme… A Jedi is required to be in control of their feelings, you're not. You are allowed to mourn the end of a chapter in your life while simultaneously celebrating the beginning of a new one. It's a part of life we must all face sooner or later."

He spoke so wisely and she couldn't tell if it was some innate sage philosophy that every Jedi learned through doctrine or meditation, or if he was speaking from experience. He too had suffered an immense loss in their history together.

"Were you allowed to cry when Master Qui Gon was killed?"

There was the subtlest hint of hardness in his expression, so subtle it would be easy to miss in a blink, but enough to strike her with shame.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "That was thoughtless…"

He was shaking his head, perhaps to make her feel better. "I was young. I was overwrought with many emotions that day… I felt rage and sorrow the likes of which I have not endured since or allowed to surface since…"

There was a furrow in his brow as he spoke about it. She was sorry to have been the one to make him frown, but she could not help being transfixed, hearing him speak of something so personal.

"That is why Jedis cannot form attachments…" he met her gaze as he said this, in a way that made her shudder and feel so far away from him, though they were only inches apart.

"How can you not be attached to your own master?" she challenged, though she said it softly.

He sighed and smiled sadly. "I am sure some padawan or other has solved that riddle. But I have not." The smile became more mischievous. "Perhaps we could ask Anakin."

But she couldn't smile, not after seeing the pain she caused in him. "I doubt even Anakin would be able to avoid attachment to his master."

He made no reply. Maybe she said too much. She wanted to take away the pain she caused and instinct had her reaching out to him. He sucked in a breath and stepped back, out of her reach.

"I have over stayed my welcome… My apologies, Senator."

"You don't need to be so formal with me, Obi Wan…" she couldn't speak louder than a whisper.

He still stepped away. "I think that I do. Goodnight, my lady. I hope our paths will cross again soon."

He turned on his heel in a sway of brown cloak and he was out the door, leaving her alone in the warm light of her apartment. In his absence she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had feelings for Obi Wan Kenobi and he was not allowed the same.