InsaneJournal

Who: Ani Jr. and Padmé
What: Ani is avoiding people, Padmé discusses why
When: Friday afternoon
Where: Very top floor of the North Tower
Rating/Warnings: Probably low
Status: In progress/Closed


If one wanted to gain access to the North Tower they must do so on the first floor. A corridor cut through between two sets of staffs’ quarters and the door at the end entered the spiral staircase that led up and up.

Young Anakin’s journey to the top of that tower started with the courtyard. It was the afternoon; the bus had just dropped him off from school. He walked up the drive and through the courtyard entrance and right up to the main doors of the castle. From there he walked the halls to cut through the dining hall. Along his way he grabbed a fruit off the table display of snacks the staff set out between meals. He left the dining hall by the back entrance, to the corridors that would take him to the West wing. The West and North wing wrapped the courtyard, along one side of the hall were the doors to the quarters, along the other were the large, arched windows that looked out down on the courtyard. And in that time it had taken him to pass from the doors of the castle to the Northwest tower others had gathered in the courtyard below.

Anakin recognized that red hair instantly, catching for the first time since his arrival in this place a glimpse of his Master. He didn’t recognize the dark haired, young man with him, not by looks, at least, but he knew the feeling of that young man in the Force. That raw, seething, inexplicable hatred Anakin knew was just for him. It was for that young man’s benefit he had been taught to hide himself in the Force, from whom he was hiding now. In that tower, through the tower window, Anakin stopped to take in the scene of training. He couldn’t hear them, not without tapping the Force, but he didn’t want to, seeing was quite enough. Something stirred within him he didn’t know what because emotions weren’t to be harbored, just brushed aside unexamined.

He didn’t know what to call what he was feeling, but he knew he didn’t like it.

He pivoted on the spot, changing direction from the quarters he stayed in, to the spiral stairs of the tower. He rushed down to the first floor and through the corridors to the North tower access. In his exploration of the castle he’d found this tower and knew it was one rarely used. He would not be disturbed, or if he was it wouldn’t be for a long time. He climbed to the top and when he reached it he claimed the window sill. He wanted to shut himself down in the Force, so that no one could feel him, he didn’t want whatever he was feeling to be broadcast to everyone with the right kind of receiver, but he knew he couldn’t. Luke and his older self would know, instantly. A rock and a hard place.

He just wanted to be left alone to figure out what he had seen, and what it made him feel without someone telling him to simply get rid of the emotions.